The Wielder of BlackFire: The Alliance Maker
by BlackDragonDiva
Summary: COMPLETE A mysterious girl from the future somehow finds a way into the Fuedal Era. She forms alliances with our favotire FA gang. Her strength is limitless and she has shards of the Jewel? And how does she know the gang's past, as well as their future?
1. The Beginning

The Welder of BlackFire:  
Thorn's Past Life-The Alliance Maker  
  
A girl was walking in a thick groove of woods. Sunlight filtered through the trees, making patterns on the dry earth. She was walking along silently, lost in her own thoughts when her foot sank into the mud. That's strange, she thought, since the rest of the ground was hard and dusty. She pulled her foot out and examined it, no mud grasped at the sneaker's bottom. She place her foot all around the squishy area, but all is normal and no mud clamps to the bottom of her shoe. She got down on her hands and knees and brushed away the leaves that lay there. There was a mirror, but when she picked it up, it did not reflect her image, or any of her surroundings, but a rotting tree stump. And in its rotting middle stood a sword. The hilt of the sword was all that was visible since the sword was sheathed in a dull black case. But the hilt was beautifully made, even she saw this, when swords of such beauty no longer existed but in museums, with a hilt of black (what looked like) scales. In its hilt there was a pink shimmer. A fragment of a shiny jewel. The butt of the hilt there was a blue gem, a sapphire of large proportions that glinted in the sunlight.  
  
She stared into the large square mirror, and reached out unconsciously in her daze. The girl's hand went straight through the glass, and appeared on the other side of it, so she saw her hand on the side the sword was. She brought her hand back quickly at first, with curiosity. Then, with more courage, thrust her hand back in, and removed it slowly. She gave the mirror an uncertain look. She placed it back on the ground and jumped on it, only to appear in the other dimension. She looked around, utterly surprised and shocked. But something caught her eye and made her look up. There was a boy there, and she watched as he reached out to touch the sword. It glowed blue, and the person retreated his hand.  
  
He was dressed in red, with long white locks that fell down his back. But wait a minute, this was amazing! He was not a human. Humans don't have ears that sit at the top of their head like a dog!  
  
*  
  
InuYasha and Kegome had walked into the clearing. Kegome asked Inuyasha why they were here, and he responded that there was a piece of the Shikon Jewel imbedded in the hilt of the sword.  
  
"There's an old saying that goes with the sword. I don't know it, but it talks about the sword being powerful with old magic of a powerful demon. It goes that no demon can touch it, and if you touch it and it glows gold, then it has chosen you to be it welder. But if it glows blue, it refuses you and if you try to take it by force, it will kill you," Inuyasha said.  
  
"Maybe you can touch it, because you're not all demon." Kegome replied, looking curiously at the sword. What Inuyasha had just said reminded her of when they had accumulated the Tetsusaiga.  
  
Inuyasha went up to the sword and touched its sheath lightly. The colors of gold began to glow from its body, but only to be extinguished by smoldering blue flames. Inuyasha backed away.  
  
"We'll come back tomorrow. Maybe it will have changed its mind," InuYasha said, turning, and left. Kegome followed, looking one last time at the sword.  
  
"Hum," she said before turning and following the hanyou from the spot.  
  
The girl was hiding in the shadows and when they left she crept forward carefully, completely awed. The sword seemed to be smoking a bluish hue. She liked the way it looked, and stared at it for a long while. But the sun's shadows were growing long and so she withdrew and found the mirror back to the woods. She was amazed and so picked up the mirror, which still held the image.  
  
She ran up a hill to her house and hid the mirror in her closet, not quite sure what to do with it, but felt as though she needed to keep it, that it made itself just for her.  
  
iI must be going insane/i, she mused.  
  
The next day, she went back to her closet and opened the door. She looked at the mirror, which still held the image of the sword in the stump. After a long time of staring, she put the mirror on the floor and stepped tentatively on it. She again passed into the other world.  
  
She saw the sword, bathed in the early morning streaks of light, and went to it. It seemed to beckon her and she was drawn to its beauty. When she stood before it, she brushed her fingers along its length. It mystified again before shinning a brilliant gold, which blinded the girl and forced her to hold her hand up to shadow her eyes. She refused to close her eyes or look away while it burned in its bright light and it seemed impressed by this feat. Its radiance stopped, and it dropped from its rotten stump, the hilt pointing toward her.  
  
Authors' note: Yes, I know. I had this same thing posted before, but it irked me that I hadn't posted it so that I could get reviews. So I reposted it. Just to let all the newcomers know, this is like the prologue here, just because I'm really into the whole 'building tension' deal. I promise that it'll get better in the future! Now, you'll see in the next chappy why I rated this story pg-13. Right now you're probably thinking 'this isn't so bad, no course language or nuttin' but I say that next chapter I start with the real characters, because I know that these guys are way out of it right now. But as I continue, they'll become more like themselves. Now, did I leave anything out? No, I don't think so..  
  
Disclaimer:  
  
Me: Unfortunately, I don't own Inuyasha, not even a plushy! * fountain tears * I really want a Sesshie plushy too. When he's that cute lil, well big, puppy! Or an Inuyasha one. I wanna pull his ears!!! * grabs Inuyasha, pulling ears *  
  
Inuyasha: hey! That hurts! Cut it out! * rubs now throbbing, red ears *  
  
Me: oh, okay. * pout * meany. Just don't forget that I can use my magic keyboard to turn you into anything! Which includes a dancing monkey! Just because I love the cute little hats they wear.  
  
Inuyasha: * Backs away, looking for escape. Jumps from window *  
  
Me: hey! Come back here! * sigh * oh well. Oh yeah, I was doing the disclaimer wasn't I? Hn. Well I do own Thorn and BlackFire, even if I don't own Inuyasha, so bye-bye suits! * waves to lawyers as they leave in their fancy sport cars * 


	2. The Meeting

The Welder of BlackFire:  
Thorn's Past Life-The Alliance Maker  
  
Chapter Two: The Meeting  
  
Inuyasha saw the light, for he was camped not far away, to his left. He ran, but when he came upon the clearing were the decomposing stump lay, there was no sword, but the heavy scent of human flirted with the air. He was angered at this.  
  
"Damn, someone got here before me. But a human? They smell like Kegome after she passes through the well," he said to himself. He went back to the where they had camped camped and asked Kegume about any activity around the well. But no one had been to the well but her, and her being the only one that could travel through it made it impossible for others to without a peice of the Jewel.  
  
"Hmm," said Inuyasha, deep in thought.  
  
*  
  
Months passed since Inuyasha had tried to take the black sword from the tree stump.  
  
Inuyasha and Kegome were walking along a dirt road when a crazed and screaming demon came out of the woods on their right, crawling in front of them. He was begging for mercy and protection inexchange for anything they wanted. In desperation he said he'd give a shard of the Shikon Jewel in exchange for protection when they did nothing. This caught InuYasha's attention, but too late for the demon, who's body was being drawn back into the forest by an invible force. He screeched and clawed at the ground, but not even InuYasha's demon speed could catch up with him. All that he found was a pile of ashes, the reminates of the brute.  
  
"Come out," InuYasha called. A shuffle in a near-by tree brought the girl to the ground, her bare feet as soft on the ground as a cats. But she was different now, changed from the girl who had been at the site of the sword. Her skin was tanned by long hours of walking in the sun, her hair bleached blondish brown by the sun's rays. She was dressed in leather top with a strap over her left shoulder and a short leather skirt. She stood tall, her hair falling to her back but for two strands, covering the black-hilted sword on her back that hummed and sang in her ear.  
  
"Impressive, you got here quickly," she said. The girl stood up tall with, not the sword, but a long staff crowned with a moon of gold and a star connecting the points of the crescent, at her side.  
  
"What did you do with the shard of the scared Shikon jewel that the demon had?" he demanded. She looked to where he had come, and could hear branches snapping as Kegome trampled through the trees. She turned back to Inuyasha.  
  
"I did not mean for us to meet so soon, Inuyasha," she replied, ignoring his question. "But I guess it couldn't be avoided. We'll meet for real later, now your friends are approaching and the last thing I would think you would want would be Kegome finding you with me." She chuckled and her image flashed, and dissapeared.  
  
"Who are you? How do you know me?" Inuyasha cried. He looked around, but couldn't find any sign of her.  
  
The golden staff's sharp edge pushed against his throat. He swallowed and a single drop of blood escaped from under his skin.  
  
"Now why did you let me do that?" she asked, whispering in his ear. She smiled, he could feel it, but he couldn't move without gutting his throat on her staff.  
  
"What do you want?" he asked finally. Her smile grew.  
  
"You'll know in good time. But for now I must leave, Kegome is coming. I will be seeing you." And with that her staff slowly slid from his neck. He swung around with Tetsusaiga, but she was nowhere to be seen. Her staff, who's point had just left his throat in a second, was gone as well. She had melted with the shadows, unbeknownst to him. The last point of the staff had been an illusion, but it did not matter.  
  
"What's the matter InuYasha? I can't feel the shard anywhere. Where's the demon?" Kegume asked, rushing through the trees into the clearing. "Gone," he replied, resheathing his sword.  
  
Authoress' Note:  
  
yo! I figured out how to post chapters! *does a little dance* It makes me happy. But anyway, here's the new chappy. I hope ya liked it. I know it was really short. Now, I'm gunna warn ya now, I start off slow, but things pick up really quickly. I'm a big fan of the whole 'building tension' thing. At the end you'll be begging for an encore because of the way I ended it. Oh geez, its only the second chapter and I'm already starting to give the ending away!  
  
And I wanted to tell you that i/i is suppose to make stuff Italic, but its not working. Oh well. I'll just have to go through the whole story and fix it is all. Hmm, now there was something else I wanted to say. Hmm. Well I've been babbling waaay too much so I'll just do the disclaimer now and be done with it. -sniff, sniff-  
  
Disclaimer:  
  
Me: -crying-NO! I want to own them all! Boo hoo!  
  
Inuyasha: suck it up, we all have problems.  
  
Me: -glare- shut up or I'll turn you into a dancing monkey! Ya know, sometimes you are way too depressing!  
  
Inuyasha: leave me alone and just do the disclaimer -growl-  
  
Me: don't use that tone with me Mister! -waves magic wand, turning his hair purple-  
  
Inuyasha: agg! My hair! What did you do to it!?  
  
Me: ha!  
  
Inuyasha: Fine, I'll do the disclaimer. This wand-happy, sugar-high person does NOT own Inuyasha and company. And boy am I glad for that or else she'd end up turning everyone's hair pink and purple. -light bulb- Hey! Can you do me a favor? Sesshoumaru really likes the color pink...would you like to turn his hair colors? -evil grin-  
  
Me: -waves wand around- no no! Sesshie is too cute for pink! Oh, and you forgot to tell them that I own Thorn and BlackFire! -watches sparkles drift from wand-  
Inuyasha: yeah yeah. 


	3. A New Ally

The Welder of BlackFire:  
Thorn's Past Life-The Alliance Maker  
  
Chapter Three: A New Ally  
  
Several days later, Kegome and Inuyasha were walking along a road when InuYasha caught the scent. Dragonblood mingled with human scent. He ran to it, knowing it was the mysterious girl's smell. She was waiting for him, staff in hand, in the middle of a large field of little anything but ashes that reeked of dragonblood. A Dragon's fiery breath had cast the ashes were they lay.  
  
InuYasha came from the forest, clearly ready to fight.  
  
"Welcome," she greeted him innocently.  
  
"Who are you?" he hissed angrily.  
  
"My name is Thorn," she said quietly.  
  
"Why have you lead me here, Thorn?" he asked, his voice hard.  
  
"A battle of course. But since I did make the field, I make the rules as well. May I?" she asked sweetly, her eyes intent on his face. The girl's dark hair was pulled back, the first sign that she was even remotely serious about the fight, and her staff held at ready, for demons were so unpredictable.  
  
"Fine," he spat, unsheathing the Tetsusaiga.  
  
"Okay. First rule, this is not a battle to the death. It will be until first blood. Whoever draws the blood of their opponate first, wins. Simple, right? Second rule, the victor receives one thing that they request as long as it is in the losers power to give." She stopped, letting her words seep into his mind. "Deal?"  
  
"Fine. No blood? Afraid I'll kill you?" he sneered. She smiled but did not answer. No, it was quite the opposite. He was angered when she said nothing, getting the feeling of being mocked.  
  
"Fine, let's go!" he cried, and charged. She disappeared, but this time he warded off her attack from behind before she could cradle her staff around his throat. Thorn smiled, and it stuck to her soft-featured face, unmoving in her amusement.  
  
"You learn quickly," she said to him as she flew backward.  
  
"Shut-up and fight!" he told her. She obeyed, but he soon learned that it was much more comfortable if she spoke, for without the sound, even his enhanced ears could hardly pick up her sounds. She jumped into a tree and disappeared.  
  
"No hiding!" he shouted, growling, but he soon regretted muffling her sound with his voice, for even his demonic ears did not pick up the sound until too late. She came down just as he turned and caught his right sleeve, tearing the flesh that lay beneath the white undercloth were there was a slice in the sleeve of his red shirt of protection. Victory was Thorn's.  
  
She looked at him and her smile grew wider as he cursed. He snorted with disgust.  
  
"As I mentioned, the winner is granted one wish as long as it is in the power of the loser to grant it," she said, her staff still at his shoulder.  
  
"Yes," he mumbled, but he was thinking about a way to get her shards of the jewel.  
  
"Well, my wish is training. From you," she said, her eyes level with his as he jerked his head around to give a fierce stare. She regarded him coolly.  
  
"What?!" he asked. "Training? Me train a ihuman/i?" he asked, clearly surprised.  
  
"Yes," she said, removing her staff from his arm.  
  
"InuYasha, she won, you have to give her what she wants. It won't hurt you to train her." Kegome said, yet she was clearly not trusting in the girl. "Besides, you can't break a promise," said Shippo, the little kitsune. Inuyasha grumbled an agreement.  
  
*  
  
Thorn stayed with them, but the others clearly did not trust her. The sword on her back hummed angrily and she whispered to it softly. BlackFire is angered at her supposed stupid request.  
  
"Who are you talking to?" Kegome asked as they walked along a dirt road.  
  
"BlackFire," she said. The girl turned to Kegome. "My sword. The one that Inuyasha tried to take from that stump a few months ago." Kegome was surprised to hear this but dark was drawing close and Inuyasha interjected from a tree, telling them to make camp. The first night Thorn helped make their camp, but did not sit at the fire. Instead she climbed in a tree and rested there, staring off into space. InuYasha could hardly sleep, knowing she was so close and a potential threat. The next day is the first of the training. Her fighting staff was downsized and seemingly disappeared. Instead she revealed a heavier, weighted staff. The first day is stiff and awkward, and nothing really got accomplished in the two hours.  
  
On day two there is more to say. Again, they traveled, ever searching for jewel shards. But they were rare, because Inuyasha had acquired nearly half the jewel and the girl, according to the sapphire imbedded in the sword's hilt, where Thorn seemed to keep the shards, she had about 20%. But they did not find anyone/thing with shards and so the day ended with empty hands. That night, Thorn did sit by the fire, much to Inuyasha's apparent relief, she could feel, where he could watch her. She leaned against a tree, her eyes closed, with BlackFire by her side.  
  
"Kegome, don't you think you'd better be going if you're going to be on time?" Thorn asked, her eyes still closed and her arms crossed. Kegome's hand went to her mouth.  
  
"Oh, I nearly forgot!" she said and quickly stood up, brushing the dirt from her school uniform. They were located near the well and so she ran to its side and jumped in. InuYasha jumped up and started to follow her.  
  
"Hey! Wait, what's going on here?" InuYasha called after her. Thorn smiled. Inuyasha turned around.  
  
"What's so funny?" he asked acidly.  
  
"Nothing," she said, her voice smiling. He grumbled something about secrets and sat down again.  
  
Shippo was long asleep and the fire was comfortably warm. Thorn sighed and stood up.  
  
"Where are you going?" InuYasha asked suspiciously.  
  
"Tonight's hunting night," she told him simply. He looked up at her, curious she could tell. "Don't follow me," she said and shape-shifted into a white wolf shape. She glared at him, a warning, and sauntered off. He watched her go, confused, curious and interested. He grumbled something about not wanting to come.  
  
A/Note: Hello! I know, I haven't updated in forever. But my computers been on the fritz. Don't worry, we get a new one tonight (hopefully, even though I love this one. It seems to like me a lot more than the rest of my family, since it always seems to let me on even when its acting up for them ^_^'). Anyway, enough excuses. Did you like this chapter? I reread it and said AKK, scaring my cat. Lol. But I remembered that I wrote this a while back (four or five months ago). I improved upon it a little bit. Hope ya like it so far. It gets better though, promise! Once Sesshy comes in it gets really interesting * wink * * wink *. Hehe. Okay, enough babbling. If you really like it then reviewy please! I just want one, it'll make me update faster, because I'll feel good about it! Geez, I'm starting to sound like one of those freaky barney kids. Have you Ever watched that? * shudder * agg okay, lets get on with this before I freak myself out thinking about stuff like that. I just hope those kid's parents have great shrinks.  
  
Disclaimer: Me: I can't do this anymore! Its too painful! * sob *  
  
Miroku: there there. * pats on back *  
  
Me: dammit, Miroku, it your hand goes any farther down then my shoulder I'm going to kill you. With my finger nails. -growl-  
  
Miroku: -gulp- of course. I wouldn't think of such a thing.  
  
Me: yes you would.  
  
Miroku: ahh, lets just do the disclaimer, shall we? -backs away-  
  
Me: yeah yeah, I guess. I own Thorn N BlackFire.  
  
Miroku: and who /don't/ you own?  
  
Me: shuddap.  
  
Miroku: You /do not/ own Inuyasha and company. Right?  
  
Me: I guess.  
  
A/n: does anyone ever read these stupid little things I put down here in the disclaimer? I was just wondering. I read 'em all the time and I was just wondering if it was because I've just got too much time on my hands or what. Okay, anyway! The pretty purple button!!! Right there! On the left! See it?? Yeah, that's right! Push it! Now review! Tada! Magic! Okay, I'm going now. 


	4. Meeting BlackFire

The Welder of BlackFire:  
Thorn's Past Life-The Alliance Maker  
  
Chapter Four: Meeting BlackFire Blood scented the air. The blood of a doe. Interested, InuYasha jumped up and followed it. He entered a tiny clearing, where a deer hung from a tree, blood dripping to the ground from its slit throat. But other than the gouging wound in its throat, it hung untouched.  
  
'Why would a deer be hanging from a tree, untouched? But if it was bait..', but Inuyasha was cut off by a growl sounding behind him and the jumping out Thorn, still in wolfish form. She growled and spat at him, then, realizing who it was, her eyes glowed from bluish green to silver. Another sound came from the other side of the clearing.  
  
'Leave,' she told the hanyou before her coat grew a dark and shinning black. The muzzle of the black wolf was blood-stained, Inuyasha noticed, as it ran toward the sound. A small screech echoed in the clearing, the screech of a dying demon. InuYasha walked back to camp, very nearly disgusted.  
  
*  
  
An hour later, the black wolf stalked into camp, coat bloodied. InuYasha wrinkled his nose in disgust.  
  
"You shouldn't be wearing demonic blood so proudly," he said, opening his eyes. Blue eyes glared up at him and a grin split the maw of the creature.  
  
"You thing I'm her do you?" it said, voice brassy and old, wisdom echoing in its depths. The hanyou looked down at the wolf.  
  
"What do you mean /her/?" he asked, giving the wolf a side-ways glare. The wolf chuckled and looked to the trees.  
  
"I am BlackFire," came the voice again, "The Slave of the Sword," his voice hinting disgust. He looked back at the dog-demon, who is now truly puzzled. BlackFire sighed. "I am the sword that the girl wears on her back. The one that refused your demonic blood at the rotting tree."  
  
Confusion left InuYasha, but was replaced by questions. "Wait a minute, I thought that the demon in the sword could not emurge ever because it was sealed by such powerful magic?"  
  
"That is true, yet it is not," replied BlackFire. "I am bound to the sword, but with the permission of my welder I may emerge." A smile tugged at his muzzle. "My Mistress is quite freelance and gives me the freedom I seek at night, so that I may slay and feed as I did so long ago." His eyes bore into InuYasha's. "My Mistress is everything that I hoped for, and the best I could have hoped for in a human. But now she's not quite human anymore," he continued.  
  
"What do you mean by 'not all human'?" asked InuYasha when he did not elaborate. A smile glazed the black muzzle of the creature. A gurgle that could be called a laugh bubbled from his throat. He lowered his head onto his forepaws and closed his eyes.  
  
"Do not anger her if you want to live. She has plans," and with that his breathing became normal and deep, with the depth of sleep.  
  
"Hey! Hey!" cried InuYasha when he was ignored and the black wolf did not continue; but the beast was no longer BlackFire, the fur began to change color from a black bodily coat to white, the white scar that slashed his forehead fading from white to black.  
  
"Come back!" he called, and the eyes opened, green and annoyed. The muzzle opened and a yawn escaped, revealing sharp fangs that glinted in the fire's light, reflecting the flames. A glare was cast to him before she fell asleep.  
  
"Good-den, InuYasha," she whispered. He snorted and turned to watch the fire, wondering about what had happened and what BlackFire was talking about.  
  
A/N: okay okay, yeah, so I haven't updated in a while. A week actually. But its because we never did get a new comp, which kinda makes me happy, so I haveta get on this one when its not freaking out. Kk. I changed what was thoughts from I-/I to '-'. And to put emphasis on a word I'm using /-/. Get it? Good. Great. Peachy. Yeah. Kk. I'm done.  
  
Disclaimer: Shippo: What is a disclaimer?  
  
Kegome: its something the author uses so they don't get sued by the people who really own us!  
  
Shippo: Oh. Well I don't want the author to get in trouble!  
  
Me: Oh Shippo you're so kawaii! -huggles-  
  
Shippo: -gag-  
  
Miroku: You're killing him!  
  
Me: -growl- shuddup perv. -lets go of kitsune, who gasps for breath- Here you go Shippo! I'll give you chocolate if you do the disclaimer! -waves chocolate bar-  
  
Inuyasha: You never offered chocolate to me! -pout- -puppy dog eyes-  
  
Me: Well for being over sixty years old I didn't think I needed to bribe you. I could just threaten you.  
  
Shippo: haha! -points and laughs- I'll do it! The nice author of this story does not own any of us! But she does own that chocolate bar, an' Thorn and BlackFire.  
  
Me: good boy Shippo! -hands him chocolate bar and pats him on head-  
  
Shippo: -tears paper away, beings to inhale chocolate-  
  
Inuyasha: -whimper- 


	5. The Real Training Begins

The Welder of BlackFire:  
Thorn's Past Life-The Alliance Maker  
  
Chapter Five: The Real Training Begins The next day Inuyasha woke up to a roaring fire and bright sunrays from the rising sun. Over the fire was a pot full of what sounded like boiling water and what smelled like roasting deer. He sat up and put his hand over the pot as if to pick up the lid and look inside.  
  
WHAM!  
  
He fell backward and cradled his smarting hand.  
  
"Don't touch," Thorn said, bringing her staff back to her side.  
  
"What was that for?!" he yelled, waking up Shippo. She stood next to the fire, staff in hand and left hand on hip.  
  
"Whaa?" asked Shippo, before smelling the air and jumping up. "Something smells good!" he said and went over to the pot. Thorn thrust her staff in front of him.  
  
"Learn from InuYasha's mistake. Don't touch. Its hotter than anything you've ever touched."  
  
"How is that possible?" argued InuYasha, rubbing his hand and grumbling insults.  
  
"We've turned up the fire's intensity and spelled the pot to take the heat. If you touch it before I turn down the intensity then it will literally burn your hand off." InuYasha glared at her and thought to himself, 'That's not possible.'  
  
"It is possible" Thorn said aloud, startling the hanyou.  
  
'Did she just read my mind?' he asked himself.  
  
"Yes," she said. "I have a habit of doing that," she said with a smile, but not looking at him. "Anyway, if you don't believe me, watch." Thorn picked up a thick stick and tapped the bubbling pot's lid. The stick disintegrated into nothing, with only half of it still in her hand. "See?" she asked, and they nodded in acknowledgement.  
  
Kegome emerged from the well at this time, climbing the vines from the well, she could smell the meat as well.  
  
"Hmm, smells delicous! What is it?" she asked excitedly.  
  
"Deer meat," she said. "From my hunting expedition." She waved her hand over the fire and its light lessened. She took off the top, revealing three large pieces. "Fresh from last night," she said to InuYasha's thought of contamination.  
  
"You may take your fill," she said and began to walk toward a tree.  
  
"Aren't you going to eat, Thorn?" Kegome asked.  
  
"No, I've already eaten my fill much earlier this morning," she said and sat down, leaning against the tree.  
  
"When did you get up? I didn't even hear you," said InuYasha casually, but his mind suggested that he was prying.  
  
"Early," was all she said. They ate and Thorn rested, Inuyasha stuffing his face quickly. When they were done Thorn stood up.  
  
'Since you have nothing planned for the day, I suggest we start training,' she said, yet no aloud, but in InuYasha's mind.  
  
He turned. "Did you say something?" he asked. 'You heard me clearly,' she spoke.  
  
"Hmm, yeah I guess so," he agreed. A smile hinted at the girl's lips as she turned away.  
  
"Where are you two goin'?" asked Shippo, looking up from his meal. Thorn turned back slightly, enough to make eye contact with the little fox demon with her right eye.  
  
"To keep a promise," she replied.  
  
There was a large clearing next to the well where the two trained. She was taught Blades of Blood, and Iron Reaper, Soul Stealer. Inuyasha was still hesitent at the thought of training a human all of his attacks, but until he could think of a way to get her jewel shards, he'd just have to play along. he thought.  
  
Thorn trained with the heavy staff that was several pounds heavier than her normal one. The hanyou asked why she did not train with the sword. She glanced at him a moment before telling him that she did not use the sword unless she truly had to, but instead draw power from it. Thorn did not elaborate but did say that she cared enough for BlackFire not to hurt him unless she felt that he deserved it.  
  
"It shows I still have a shred of humanity clinging to my soul," she said jokingly with a small laugh.  
  
She eyed the Tetsusaiga. "I'd be willing to show you how powerful he is, and then you'll know why I hardly use him," she said.  
  
"Hmm. In exchange for what?" he asked, knowing that it could not come that easily. 'If I can figure out how she draws on her swords power, then I'll have a better chance of defeating her and getting the Jewel shards,' the hanyou thought excitedly, but suspicously.  
  
"A sword for a sword," she shrugged, her eyes glued to his father's great fang. "Don't think I'll go stealing it, its not nearly as powerful as a dragon," she said at his hesitating thought. He fumed a moment at her calling his father's fang weaker than anything, baring his fangs.  
  
"But if you don't want to experiance real power, well that's your choice," she said. "But I suppose I shouldn't make such assesments when I've never even swung the Tetsusaiga."  
  
'She'll see that the Tetsusaiga is more powerful then her BlackFire. And she can't even drawn on the Tetsusaiga's power without demon blood. And I'll have her sword, and according to what she just said, without it, she's not all that powerful, so she wouldn't want to leave it behind, which is what she'd have to do to take the Tetsusaiga,' he thought, contemplating the pros and cons of the situation.  
  
He agreed and Thorn handed over BlackFire, who glowed a fierce blue hue in anger, as he handed her the Tetsusaiga.  
  
"Careful, he has a tendancy to give people quite a shock." She chuckled at the thought. The weight of the broad-sword made Inuyasha nearly drop the dragon while Thorn hafted the feather-light Tetsusaiga in one hand. She was testing the Tetsusaiga's blade sharpness on her hand when a screech came from Inuyasha. She looked over to the "shocked" hanyou.  
  
She smiled, and said "He is quite amused." She laughed. "He says he only gave you a 3, and you screamed. That's not too impressive," she added "I'd like to see you take it!" he growled, shaking his burnt hands. She smiled even wider at this.  
  
"Like yourself, I've been struck by lightning in my training, so I didn't end up tarnished like you in the fight with the Thunder Brothers." She turned back to the sword with its knicked and rusted blade, its power still hidden within its depths.  
  
"What do you know about that fight?" he asked, amazed and not understanding how she could have known about the battle.  
  
"I have my ways of knowing." Thorn said. She smiled to herself as blood dripped from her hand as the blade of the Tetsusaiga tore her flesh. She clenched her fist and healed the cut. InuYasha grumbled something not understandable to the girl's ears as she twirled the Tetsusaiga.  
  
A/N: Okay, next chapter Sesshy comes! Yay! I can't wait! Maybe I'll put it up today if I have time, but I doubt it.  
  
Disclaimer: Me: -sigh- I hate this part  
  
Shippo: I'll do it for another chocolate bar! -grin-  
  
Me: oh! You're just so cute. But I'm all out of chocolate.  
  
Shippo: awww...  
  
Me: INUYASHA! Do the disclaimer  
  
Inuyasha: why me?  
  
Me: because I said so -growl-  
  
Inuyasha: okay okay! The freaky author of this story owns only Thorn and BlackFire, not me. -glare from authoress- or..anyone else. -nervous glance- 


	6. SesshoumaruThorn's Battle

The Welder of BlackFire:  
Thorn's Past Life-The Alliance Maker  
  
Chapter Six: Sesshoumaru-Thorn's Battle  
  
It had been five days since Thorn had begun traveling with the trio. Dusk was falling that day. The campfire glowed acidically in the fading light, shifting in a cool breeze. The breeze came from the south, but a scent still clung haphazardly to its dancing garments. Thorn looked at InuYasha, wondering if his sensitive nose picked up the same wave of wind as her.  
  
'Do you smell him?' she asked his mind. He glanced at her, golden eyes bright.  
  
'Yes,' were his thoughts. She nodded and stared back into the fire. The sun's rays had faded into just streaks of mango and salmon when she stood up. He was too close to avoid. Thorn knew whom he was coming for. Or, rather, what he was coming for, and rose up.  
  
"Time to go," she told InuYasha, materializing her staff.  
  
"No," he said. "Its time for me to go."  
  
She looked down at him as he began to rise, opening his eyes when he was fully risen, determination shinning of their surfaces.  
  
"I don't want interference," he stated, bluntly, plainly, without room for argument. Her lips drew tight and her jaw hard.  
  
"What's wrong?" Kegome asked. Thorn looked down at her almost pitily, but she no longer seemed to feel such emotions. InuYasha turned and walked into the clearing that he and Thorn had used to train in. Sesshomaru was there, standing on a small knoll, his empty left sleeve blowing in the wind. The two girls and the kitsune watched as InuYasha walked to the center of the field while Sesshoumaru looked down upon him. They all knew what Inuyasha's brother was after. The Tetsusaiga.  
  
"Hmm, I see you still keep the company of humans, how disgraceful," the lord said in his quiet voice.  
  
"Hmm," snorted Thorn from the trees, but her words were blocked out by Inuyasha's snarl.  
  
"Shut-up!" the hanyou cried, his hand on the hilt of the Tetsusaiga. "What do you want?" he growled.  
  
"What do you think I want, Inuyasha?" he asked, a small breeze rustling his clothing and silvery hair.  
  
"Let me guess, you're still after the Tetsusaiga. But I wont let you have it!" the hanyou hissed at his older brother.  
  
"So be it. It looks like I'll have to take it by force," Sesshoumaru said.  
  
"You won't take it at all!" Inuyasha screamed, drawing his sword and lunging at the demon. Sesshoumaru met him halfway, withdrawing his glowing whip and fending off Inuyasha's attack. With an angry growl, Inuyasha slashed again and again, but his mighty sword never even brushed the skin of the youkai after numerous attacks.  
  
"You have failed to release the Tetsusaiga's true power, Inuyasha, and it will kill you," Sesshoumaru said, whipping past his brother with his super speed. With his glowing whip, Sesshoumaru grabbed a hold of the sword, his whip wrapped around its hilt.  
  
Inuyasha stared in disbelief as the whip struggled against his hold on it before gritting his teeth in anger. By holding the sword he was being pulled toward his brother because of his superior strength.  
  
'What can I do? He's so much stronger than I am, and I can't hold him off like this forever.' Inuyasha thought to himself, trying desperately to think of a plan. 'If I let go of the sword to break the whip, the chances are slim that, even if I did break it, I could get to the sword before Sesshoumaru.'  
  
"You know, Inuyasha is beginning to think strategically, with his head instead of his hands, its quite an improvement since he first got that sword, don't you think, Kegome?" Thorn asked, a smirk playing on her features.  
  
"Huh? Ah, yeah, I guess so," she replied, engrossed in the fight. "But we should help him!" she said suddenly, jumping up and grabbing her bow and arrows.  
  
"No, he said not to interfere. Not yet anyway. His life is hardly in danger," the black-clad girl replied.  
  
"What do you mean? Sesshoumaru's got him by the tail and doesn't seem to be about to let go!" Shippo said, bouncing up and down on Kegome's lap.  
  
"Shippo's right, we have to help him!"  
  
"I said no," Thorn said, her voice hard and unmovable. The other two looked at her, dumbstruck. "Let him think on his feet, he will only get stronger if he has a challenge, and /only/ /then/ will he get stronger."  
  
"But he'll die! Don't you care?" Shippo screamed at her. She closed her eyes and lowered her chin, her smirk growing into a full-fledged smile. But she did not answer.  
  
"Don't you guys even think about helping me!" Inuyasha yelled to them, his eyes narrowed in concentration while fighting his brother's strength. "I can take him," he said through clenched fangs.  
  
'Dammit, even with only one arm he's still too strong!' the hanyou thought, still trying to come up with a plan.  
  
"I've had enough of this play, time for the kill," Sesshoumaru said, and gave a final pull with his whip, drawing his brother close. By wrapping his weapon around his wrist, Sesshoumaru had freed his hand and with it ran it through the hanyou's midsection.  
  
"Agg!" Inuyasha managed to cough out before being thrown to the ground. He sat up on an elbow, shooting daggers from his slowly reddening eyes. A growl came from his throat as he struggled to rise.  
  
Thorn walked in and stood in front of Inuyasha, her back to him. His voice is weak and hoarse, but he still managed to utter a sentence.  
  
"I told you not to interfere," his eyes glowing with hate along with the rim of red. She shrugged, with her not looking at him, but staring into Sesshoumaru's golden eyes, but the feeling it gave the Inu-youkai made him feel more like she was staring through them.  
  
"I made no promise," was all she said, and with that she closed her eyes and put him into unconscious oblivion.  
  
"Come get him, Kegome, if you want to make sure he doesn't get trampled. He'll be taking a nap for a little while and I know how much you would hate it if he got stepped on," Thorn said, sarcasm thick on her tongue.  
  
Kegome came as she was bidden and dragged the half-demon away to the edge of the woods, were she tried to bring him back to the present. The staff- welding girl looked at the demon, watching him.  
  
"Why are you fighting for the half-breed, human?" he asked, his golden eyes looking down at her from his position on the knoll, placing the Tetsusaiga in his false human arm, which, until this moment, he had not used. But it was apparent that he had been waiting for the moment to weld the Tetsusaiga and so had been preserving it with lack of use.  
  
"I have my reasons, Sesshoumaru," Thorn said. She brought back her staff and waited. The charge was expected, it showed that he was confident. She dodged the swipe at her throat and pulled her staff under the sword and gave it a powerful twist, wrenching it from his grasp. It flew with a deadly whoosh and landed above InuYasha's pointed ears, its magic dispersing in a milky steam.  
  
She landed in a swirl of dust, staff at ready, glaring at Sesshoumaru. Her movement had brought her staff to the shoulder of his right arm, the only real arm of his left. His speed rivaled that of sound, or even light, and before she could give a stroke he flew. With an angry glare, she threw her hair over her shoulder, which had suddenly appeared in a braid at the beginning of the fight, seemingly proof that she was aware that the battle was going to be serious.  
  
Thorn knew that with his speed and great accuracy, she could not defeat him. She stood up tall, thinking, thinking. Inuyasha woke up, his battle- bloodied body screaming as he watched.  
  
'Do you want him dead?' she asked him, her mind seeping into his own.  
  
"Yes," he croaked. She did not answer.  
  
Sesshoumaru's right hand glowed a sickly green. Poison claw. Thorn narrowed her eyes. She retracted her staff and stood even taller. Her hand went to her throat, to the black iron emblem of a dragon that lay there. Its eyes began to glow an excited blue, just as BlackFire on her back began to hum vigorously. Her hands closed around it and she pulled it from over her head, making her hair cascade over her shoulders and down her back in a thick rope, catching the last ray of light in a golden gleam before it vanished and darkened the sky. The emblem fell to the ground, and with it, it seemed, her human part.  
  
Her skin seemed to tremble: with what? Pain, excitement, fear? No, never fear, and it seemed she was incapable of ever feeling real pain from the emotionless blankness on her face.  
  
"Its too bad really, but now you die," she whispered as her frame shifted and molded. It blackened and shined. Her fingers grew into silver claws and her eyes as fierce icy-blue globes of hate and anger.  
  
The great black dragon reared up and hissed. Its glittering eyes sparkled with glee whilst its azure gaze tore towards the demon before him. A sinister curl fled to the lips of the beast, enhancing its powerful gaze. Its tail twitched, like a cat ready to pounce on its prey.  
  
"Well, she must think you'd be good fun. A game worth playing...?" the chuckling came from the dragon, its tone hinting it knew more than it ever dared to tell anyone.  
  
"Who, what are you?" asked Sesshoumaru, his voice hinting no emotions, even the curiosity and hesitation that coursed through his blood. The dragon's smile grew wider and he stepped forward. Sesshoumaru didn't move, but stood rigidly.  
  
"I am the Slave of the Sword, the Binded One. But my name matters not, for you wont live long enough to remember it...." spoke the dragon, his tones low and brassy, with a dash of anger merging with the seeming innocent words. It stepped forward again, making Sesshoumaru turn grim under his mask of blankness. This made the dragon's eyes dance with laughter that never passed its lips.  
  
"Tell me...I want to know who it is I kill.." replied the silvery youkai, his voice smooth even though he felt there was something powerful about this creature. The dragon's grin widened at this and what could have passed for a chuckle rumbled in this chest.  
  
"What a foolish thought..I am BlackFire," he hissed, the dragon's voice echoing into the minds of all the beings in the clearing.  
  
"Then say good-bye, BlackFire, while you still can," Sesshoumaru answered, his bold answer not echoing true to his emotions. His hand began to glow a sickly green once again whilst the dragons grin grew wider, revealing shards of bony teeth.  
  
The dragon's tail lashed out and struck the demon from behind. But the dog demon's quickness was unexpected and he dodged the majority of the blow. This made the grin on the dragon grow even wider, twisting his face into a contorted mess of features.  
  
"Impressive," spoke the dragon as the Inu-youkai landed and turned back toward his opponent. His eyes narrowed and his right hand continued grow acidically as he charged to attack the large creature.  
  
But BlackFire whipped his tail around behind the other youkai and another attack, this one's power hitting him full-on, proved too much for Sesshoumaru and he was struck down by the beast's tail. The tail deformed, forming a sharpened spike. He pointed it at the throat of the demon and smiled as he inched it closer, the two's eyes bearing onto one anothers. Just as Sesshoumaru was about to dodge the spike, the dragon's eyes darkened and his head jerked to glare at InuYasha. His grin vanished, and with it, it seemed, his easy-going nature. A growl erupted from his throat.  
  
"What do you mean? You said you wanted him dead!" hissed the beast at the hanyou. His face fell before becoming angry once again. "Fine, your wish is granted Mistress," he growled. His tail fell away, but not before striking the full-blooded demon again, sending him flying into far-away woods. His icy glare shone down on the toad-like Jaken.  
  
"Go find your master, and tell him that his brother will not save him next time. I will finish him off then." And with that the little green creature ran.  
  
The fire lizard's tail lashed and his angered glare turned to InuYasha.  
  
"You can try to kill him yourself next time if you insist so much. But if you fail, my mind will not be changed and I will do away with him myself," the dragon growled.  
  
'Your job is done BlackFire. Time to return,' came a sweet voice from the air, hinting of pain and impatience. The dragon's eyes gleamed with anger, their depths beginning to merge a milky gold.  
  
"I'm not done yet, Mistress," came the sweet reply from the sly dragon.  
  
'You are, now as I say, return or the consequences will be painful..' the voice rang with authority, yet every word seemed to pain it. It was female, and reminded the injured hanyou of Thorn's voice.  
  
"I won't go," growled the dragon, backing away and shaking its head. "No."  
  
'I gave you a chance,' whispered the voice. And with that electricity seemed to grow in the air, surrounding the powerful dragon. It screamed and growled in pain and shook its head. Its serpentine body twisted and coiled and rolled on the ground. He leaped up, smashing into a tree, making it splinter and crash to the ground. His body shook with pain and his voice echoed in screeching protest. But slowly the body began to change and Thorn appeared once more, laying on the ground, unconscious. The human, hanyou and kitsune just stared at the body as it lay there. Suddenly, the eyes flew open, glowing a fierce, enraged blue, yet their rage held in check by the black pupils. 'Thorn' got up, a growl in her throat and a glare in her eye. Her body, although seemingly hurt badly, moved easily, oblivious to the pain that so obviously racked it.  
  
"I could have taken him," 'Thorn' said under her breath. She stood up and looked around. She snorted.  
  
"She wasted all her energy on me, now I can't even become a wolf. Dammit," cursed 'Thorn'. But it wasn't her, it's voice was different, rougher, full of spite. It was BlackFire, and the rage that shone in his eyes, Thorn's eyes, shot like daggers. He went over to the trio. He stared down at InuYasha, bloody and scarred, and snarled.  
  
"I could have gotten him. You and your foolish pride." He turned his gaze from the hanyou to the dumbfounded Kegome and Shippo. A sneer pasted her face as her exhausted body stumbled away.  
  
With the help of Kegome, InuYasha stumbled back to camp, of which Thorn did not seem to be located in. They looked around in wonder.  
  
"Where'd she go?" asked Shippo.  
  
"Who cares," grumbled InuYasha. A leaf fell from a tree above them, making Inuyasha look up into the shadows where Thorn lay, sleeping almost peacefully, yet her body strained with what? Pain? No, just tense...not yet relaxed from the battle. InuYasha snorted and sat down under the tree next to the one Thorn was perched in.  
  
Authoress' Note: Hello! There ya go! Another chapter! Okay, this one was more about Thorn/BlackFire than anything. And I wanted to tell you that the battle with Sesshoumaru is not in the series, I made it up so that I could coax BlackFire's real form into the plot. This is way before Naraku gives Fluffy the human arm, but I needed a way for him to get his hands on the Tetsusaiga. -sigh- Trigun is all done! I've seen the whole series (taped it all too) it made me sad. Well, at least Inuyasha is coming back soon! But until then I'll just haveta deal with Fooly Cooly and Blue Gender. Okay, well I'm done then.  
  
Disclaimer:  
  
Me: okay, I'm going to try to do this today. Without help. I would have Inuyasha do it, but he ran off when I threatened him with a wooden spoon, screaming something I couldn't understand, because Trigun is over. I should make Sesshy do it! But he's too kawaii for such minor jobs. So I'll do it. -deep breath- I own only Thorn and BlackFire, not Inuyasha and company. 


	7. BlackFire's Nightly VisitThorn's Betraya...

**__**

The Welder of BlackFire:

Thorn's Past Life- A Mysterious Ally

Chapter Seven: BlackFire's Nightly Meal-Thorn's Betrayal

The next night Kegome and InuYasha talked together at the fire. A growl came from the top of the tree at Inuyasha's left at something they said. They looked up, and down came the black wolf. It stumbled, showing clearly that its true coordination was not at its fullest. It snarled a curse and regained its composure. 

"What are you doing?" InuYasha asked. Both he and Kegome watched the beast in its anger. Shippo slept near Kegome, his dreams making him twitch and stir, but not waking to the descending wolf. 

"To heal one must eat..foolish hanyou," growled the black wolf. The latter word made the half-dog-demon cringe inwardly, the pain clearly inflicted.

"We have left-overs..." began Kegome, her voice making the wolf's demeanor turn calm. He looked at her, his features turning from angered to soft, memory paining his eyes. 'She looks just like Thorn, before I came. Her eyes are innocent,' he thought. His tail drooped slightly as he walked toward her, his lips twisted into an almost smile as he excepted the meat-laden bone she offered. InuYasha tensed, waiting for harm to come to the girl before he jumped up to save her from the beast. But no harm came to her and the wolf took his meal and lay down under the tree near the fire. His tongue licked the meat greedily and his eyes shone with eagerness. InuYasha relaxed slightly. 

"Why didn't you let me kill him?" asked BlackFire innocently, beginning to tear away strips of meat from the bone. This made InuYasha glare at the wolf, who was obviously ignoring him with the exception of an ear cocked in the hanyou's direction. 

"I will kill him myself. I don't need your help," he mumbled. A snort came from the wolf as he ripped the flesh from the bone, consuming it with relish. It was clear that he would not answer the statement and so an eerily silence settled around the group with the exception of the crackling fire, a soft snore from Shippo, and the grinding of teeth on bone as the black wolf munched on the bone. Soon, the silence deepened, without the scratching of fangs against bone. All that was left of the hefty bone were slivers, not suitable for consumption. The wolf looked up, as if seeing the trio for the first time. Kegome was slowly fading off to sleep, although it was clear that her gaze had been on him. InuYasha was staring blankly at the fire, although anyone could see that he had once been looking at Kegome, but his thoughts had brought his gaze downward.

"I will let Mistress tell you what you need to know. I will not burden her with asking if I can speak of such things, and so my vow forbids me to speak. But she will tell you, in good time. Be pacitent," whispered the wolf, a yawn stretching his voice. The words made InuYasha jerk suddenly awake, out of his daze. He glared at the wolf, whose gaze strolled casually over the camp. 

The wolf slowly eased to his feet, his strength visibly returning. He picked up a paw as he stood steadily on his feet, and glared at it, murmuring softly to himself. InuYasha was intrigued but said nothing. 

Slowly, the wolf's paws began to glow a bluish tint and the claws grew steadily longer and sharper. With a small smile, he looked up the tree and advanced toward it. At its base he jumped, his bodily movements hinting that he was still not up to his full strength, and stunk his claws into the thick bark. With a few bounds, he had leaped up the tree and settled into a small nook in the tree's top. With a satisfied sigh, he lay down and began to sleep. Through the tree's branches and shadows, InuYasha could see the wolf's body transform back into that of a human, sleeping peacefully.

*

The next morning shone bright and clear. Thorn was awake before the rest, and rekindled the fire. InuYasha was first to wake of the other two, as usual. She glanced at him before turning back to staring into nothingness. 

"Your awake," he said, almost casually.

She nodded. "It would seem so," she answered. The girl sighed, her eyes looking out into nothingness all the while. Time passed. Kegome and Shippo awoke, but Thorn did not stir.

'Its time I move on. To break the promise, we must fight again,' Thorn told InuYasha after a long while. He looked at her and stood. Thorn did the same. 

"Where are you two going?" Shippo asked, his tongue quicker than Kegomes'. Thorn gave a sad smile. 

"To break a promise," she said. They entered the field where, not two days ago, there had been a battle. Blood still scented the grounds.

"Your still wounded, I can't fight you," InuYasha said at last. He had been waiting to say so when they got on the field. 

"We are same in strength and recovery. There is no unfairness here. You know the rules. First blood, winner takes one thing as long as it is within the power of the other to give," she replied. They battled. She let him win. Yes, let him. 

"The jewel shards," he said. Thorn healed her wound. 

"Do you remember the rules, InuYasha?" she asked, not looking at him. He repeated them.

"Yes, one thing, as long as it is within the losers power to give. Those are not within my power," she said, quietly, her voice softer, but had lost its lustrous tone. 

"WHAT?" he screamed, utterly confused. The girl gave a wan smile. 

"They are not mine to give. They are BlackFire's. And its not in my power to give what doesn't belong to me," she said. His anger burned. 

"I must go," she said. "When we meet again perhaps I will have something to give. But now you must continue on your quest, for if I stay, you will not meet with your new ally." She turned away. 

"Wait!..." he started, fuming, but Thorn didn't look back. She left, her form melting with the shadows. 

"Where's she going?" asked Shippo, jumping up onto Inuyasha's shoulder.

"I don't know! How am I suppose to know?!" growled the hanyou, turning away.

"Don't worry, he's just mad because she outsmarted him," said Kegome, moving to stand next to the white-haired hanyou, watching her retreating form, and receiving a growl from Inuyasha.

*

Thorn leapt through the trees. 

"I know he's here," she breathed. Her keen eyes darted around her. She landed momentarily and glanced around again. "I can feel it." 

It had been hours since she had left InuYasha, Kegome and Shippo. She traveled for another hour before coming across what she was seeking. She landed silently on a large tree branch, her eyes pasted on a white form in front of her. 

"Naraku," she said, and the white mound shifted, moved, to see her. 

"Who are you?" he asked in his fluid, deep voice. 

"I am Thorn," she said, standing up on her tree branch. He turned around, to face the girl fully. "I hear that you are in constant search for the jewel shards, and others to kill for you and that you prefer to send other creatures to do such bidding," Thorn said when he remained silent.

Her voice rang clear, its tone taken to coldness, hard and in-control. 

"Yes, and so you would like to do my bidding?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yes."

Authoress' Note:

Can you tell I am very bad at fighting scenes? I just said that Inuyasha won, no real excitement. But what's this?! Thorn is going into alliance with Naraku?! What's up with that?! Yeah yeah, lots of questions, I know. You'll all find out next chapter, as well as meet Miroku!

Miroku: Yes! Finally!

Author: I wouldn't get too excited, you're a real dork.

Miroku: -grumble- That's no fair

Author: -grin- sure it is! You're a pervert I'm just going to prove it! oh, and a warning for the next chapter, it starts to get...ahh, well you know, it hints a 'sexual situation' as Adult swim puts it. I still can recite the entire warning thing from before they started using useless commentary! Back when it had that voice that sounded like a robot! Gee, that was a long time ago!

Miroku: you have no life.

Author: -growl- well I can kill you! -clenches fists- but I need you for the next chapter

Miroku: -knows he's safe...for now-

Author: just do the disclaimer.

Miroku -whine- why me?!!

Author: Because you're the only one here and I'm not going to do it! Don't make me threaten you! -reaches for wooden spoon-

Miroku: 0.0' OK OK! Author does not own Inuyasha or any characters incorporated to it BUT for Thorn and BlackFire.


	8. Thorn's Theivery and BlackFire's Plan

**__**

The Welder of BlackFire:

Thorn's Past Life- A Mysterious Ally

Chapter Eight: Thorn's Thievery and BlackFire's Plan 

Weeks passed since Thorn had left Inuyasha and his small gang, but in those weeks they had gained a new member. A monk by the name of Miroku.

There were rumors of a powerful human that had a peice of the Shikon Jewel in a village. The group decided to go to the village, were they learn that the man is throwing a large party in his village, and had invited many people to it.

Of course, Naraku learned of this powerful human in this large village, and suggested that Thorn go to it. She excepted the prospect of gaining the shard. One more human could be passed off in the crowded masses at the party.

Inuyasha, Kegome, Shippo, Myoga (who thought that the expidition would be safe enough) and Miroku walk into the town square, where there is a small, but richly dressed man speaking on a small stage to a large crowd of people. They listen as he ends his speech with a loud applause from the people as he exits into his house.

'There's a familiar presents here, I can feel it. But who?' Inuyasha thought to himself, his eyes darting to the left and right, ears straining to hear a familiar breathing pattern, but the crowd was loud as it dispersed to the waiting tables of food.

Thorn is standing there, seemingly waiting. InuYasha saw her, but passed the tall woman off as no one. She was just standing there, long hair shimmering down her back. 

She looked around with a small tilt of her head, and caught Inuyasha's eye. She was dressed in a long black gown of her softest, and most beautiful leather. She turned to them, and almost smiled, but her face stayed straight and hard.

She knew what was coming, and so did BlackFire as he emerged from her back. It was difficult containing him like so. 

"What are you doing here?" growled InuYasha, the group walking up to her. At his slight annoyance and suspicion Thorn smiled, again her soft, sad smile. 

"What else? Searching for, well accually aquiring what, no doubt, you came here to claim." Her voice was soft, velvety, yet hard and cold along with her dark eyes. 

"What do you mean?" asked Kegome. Thorn gave her a sweeter smile. 

"I think you know what I mean, Kegome. You came here for the Shikon shard, no doubt, didn't you?"

"Well, ah, yeah but-" she started.

"Yes, well you wasted your time," she said, with a little too much bite to her voice.

She turned to the speachless Miroku, who leaned on his staff for support as his eyes and mouth gaped. Thorn sighed as BlackFire glowed and hummed in her ear. Her eyes hardened, but the monk did not waver, not noticing her fearsome gaze. 

"I see you found your new ally," she said, placing her hands on her hips with a slight glare. They looked at Thorn dumbly, and Miroku, who seemed to ignore, or prehaps not hear her words, stepped forward. 

"My lady..." he began, seemly to come out of his daze. Her eyes flashed, BlackFire hummed softly, confortingly, it seemed. Thorn's expression softened slightly. 

'Yes, I understand his plight,' Thorn growled to the dragon in her mind. 

"Will you bear my child?" he finished, taking the woman's hands in his own and stepping closer. Daggers shot from her enraged eyes. 

"You'll never quit will you, Miroku? Between you and BlackFire, no doubt you two working together, I will break my vow!" she spat at him. They all seemed taken back by her reaction. "Your plight is a tough one. But asking women for a night with yourself will result in nothing but the tinting of pure blood with that of unpure!" she continued in a violent hiss. BlackFire vibrated a warning, and then a soothing apology before she could go on. Her anger dissolved. She took a step back, tearing her hands from his with a seething glare and a sneer. 

Tossing a jewel shard in the air and catching it, thus catching InuYasha and Kegome's eye, she seemed to change her anger to smugness. 

Thorn smirked. "I'll be off now, I have to calm myself. But I'm sure our path's will cross once again InuYasha. Watch your tongue, Miroku, lest it kills you..but its not your tongue you must worry about is it? But that hand...." she faded her sentance into nothing, never finishing it. She turned and walked away, and all were struck idly by her outburst, then sudden collection. 

"What's with her?" Shippo asked. 

"Who is she?" breathed the perverted monk. 

InuYasha snorted. "A shadow, a demon, a human, but not. Mostly she's just a pain in the ass."

"Inuyasha! That's not very nice!" Kegome said. "Her name is Thorn." 

"The name will haunt me!" cried the monk (I'm turning him into a fool, but its fun, he's already such an actor.) "So like a thorn! How she pierces my heart!" 

They all look at him, shaking their heads in pity and disgust as the black-clad woman melted away into the shadows of the wood not a few feet away. A happy growl came from the trees, and out from the shadows from which Thorn had dissapeared into not seconds ago, bounded BlackFire. 

"What do you want?" scoffed InuYasha as the wolf lept up to them. The black wolf bared his fangs, and laid his ears flat on his skull. 

"I could ask you the same, but I know the answer, so I'll not." This made the hanyou grit his teeth and cross his arms. "But its not you I've come to speak to, so you may go," he said, dissmissing them. He turned to the distrought monk. 

'You, Monk. Quit whimpering you young curr,' he growled softly in the other's mind. Miroku straightened and gazed down at the wolf. 

"Did you say something?" he asked, his mind torn from Thorn's memory for but a moment. 

"Yes," replied the wolf. The startled monk straightened. "Ahh, Kegome, did you just hear what he said? I didn't think wolves normally spoke to humans," he said, wondering if he indeed was going insane.

"No, but she..ah, he can talk into your mind..I guess," she answered with a shrug. 

"A dirty little trick," mumbled InuYasha, closing his eyes and turning away. A cold glare was sent his way by the wolf, but its intensity was mild. 

"When you eat the soul of a pshycic then you can have the power, but until then, you'll do without." This brought an amazed look from the group, but the wolf ignored it. "If you insist, you may stay, but I warn you, it is probably nothing you want to hear. Now, Miroku.." his eyes turned back to the monk.

"Wait, before we do anything, how do you, and her, know my name?" he asked, suddenly realizing that they knew his name, confusing him. A sly grin crossed the wolf's ebon mug. 

"We know many things monk, like how your hand will be the death of you, and how much you hate Naraku. I could go on and on, but I do not wish to dwattle here." At the expressions on their surprised faces, he continued, laughter lacing his brassy voice. "I am surprised at the reaction that she just gave, accually. It was so mild." 

They all eyed him, "What? Mild?!" they said.

"Yes, mild. Her anger has hightened, especially in the last fortnight. But I think I know a way to stop it. And I must say, it will be in your best interest in the future to try to stop it." InuYasha snorted and recieved a glare from Kegome. "You know I speak the truth. She has told your future once, and knows it in detail. And so, when you meet her again, and she has assured that you will met again, she will not be so kind. Unless, prehaps, we stop her anger," said the wolf. 

"And how do we do that?" asked InuYasha bittingly. The wolf smiled slightly. 

"I have a way to stop it that should work. I was only going to present it with Miroku, but if you insist, I'll tell it out loud." The wolf sighed. 

"Speak, creature." said Miroku, the trance of Thorn's beautiful image wearing off and his seriousness returning. 

"The only way I can think to stop her madness, is to breed her. Its been long time coming that she should be bred, but her vows keep her from even thinking about it. And the gods forbid if I so much as hint it. My blood is making her this way, the demonic blood that I gave her to make her what she is, and the more I give, the worse her anger becomes. If her anger gets any worse, the earth shall quiver in her wake as they did in my own. So now, I ask that somehow, she is bred." The wolf finished, his body growing restless. The others thought silently, chewing on the idea calmly, although their minds expressed total surprise at his words. Miroku opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by the wolf. 

"I see you will need more time in deciding. I will be back three hours before dawn, and tell you all you need to know." BlackFire restlessly glanced back at the woods. 

"And what will you be doing before then?" asked InuYasha suspiciously, rising an eyebrow. The wolf gave a grin. 

"She's released me, with nothing to hold me back while she contains herself in a world of silence, and so now I go hunting. Tonight I'm free to live the life I once lived daily, and I'll relish it." A grin split his maw devishly.

A scream slit the air, shrill and ringing, hurting even the ears of humans, not to mention the keen ears of the hanyou and kitsune. They all cringed, InuYasha and Shippo holding their ears in pain. 

Blackfire smiled. "They've discovered our trap I see. Now they've found the body, and so I must leave," he said, turning from the four at the screech, a smirk highlighting his polished black mug. "Naraku will be pleased.." he whispered, to no one but himself. But InuYasha's keen ears picked up the breath, and he stared dumbly at the canine. His ears still rang with the horrible human wail, now a mere sobbing, with shouts ringing throughout the village, but he had heard it clearly. And with his final words, the black wolf bounded away. 

"HEY! COME BACK HERE!" yelled InuYasha, running after the creature. But once in the forest, the shape had melted into the shadows, and nothing remained in which to track him down. 

"InuYasha! What'd you do that for?" Kegome asked, running after the hanyou. 

"She's serving Naraku.." he stated, his face an unreadable slab of rock. But his eyes glowed dangerously. 

Authoress:

Hello ya'll! Its been a while since I've updated. I finally found a way to upload stuff from wordpad onto Fanfiction, so no more worries about that! I will soon be posting another story as well. An Yu Yu Hakusho one. oh! I almost forgot! From my first reviewer! Thank you very much 1pj9 for the email! To answer your question, ya'll can just call me J. fair enough? okay. Well, for the rest of you (if there is anyone) reading this fic, tell me what you think! 

Miroku: How could you?! -sobs-

Wham!

J: -holding batball bat- quit whinning! I told you all before that I'd be making a fool out of you eventually! Not that this is really making a fool out of you...you act that way naturally!

Miroku: -holding head- ow! That hurt! And I don't act that way ALL the time!

Inuyasha: -snort- yeah right.

Mioku: -glare- 

J: -sigh- just do the disclaimer you two.

Miroku: I did it last time! make Inuyasha do it! -still rubbing head-

J: -exasperated sigh- Fine! INUYASHA!

Inuyasha: -cringe- -glares at Miroku, who grins smugly- Fine then. J does not own Inuyasha or company, but does own Thorn and BlackFire.

J: good boy


	9. BlackFire's Explinations and Offer

**__**

The Welder of BlackFire:

Thorn's Past Life- A Mysterious Ally

Chapter Nine: BlackFire's Explination and Offer

The fire licked the air greedily, its flames reflecting in the hanyou's eyes. A soft padding came from the woods to the half-demon's left. He jerked his head toward the sound. The falls became heavier, closer, but the shadows cloaked the beast that made them. A white scar materialized in the darkness, and with it followed a pair of sapphire eyes and a silken black muzzle. Drops of water splashed onto the soft grass from the coat as the wolf stepped into the clearing. 

"I thought I smelled blood," said InuYasha with a sneer, catching the attention of his companions. A set of ivory teeth flashed in the rays of the fire, glinting in its light. 

"I washed most of it off, lucky for yourself. Or you might have a horde of demons walking into your peaceful little camp. I'm surprised though, that the monk did not give you better accommodations at a near-by village." A chuckle rose in the shaggy throat of the wolf. 

"We didn't want to draw attention to ourselves, unlike you," retorted the hanyou. 

"Well then, I'm sure I wouldn't draw half as much attention with those little white ears on top of my head now would I?" he asked mockingly, making InuYasha grit his teeth in anger. 

"Calm yourself InuYasha, let's see what he has to say," said Miroku, who was sitting calmly on the other side of the fire from the wolf. 

"Yes, listen to the monk, he tends to know things," sang out the brassy voice. With a disgruntled snort, the dog-demon crossed his arms sulkily and stared into the fire's ambers. 

"I want to know, before anything, why she's doing Naraku's dirty work," Miroku stated, his eyes closed as he sipped tea. The wolf shot him a look of amazement before subduing it into a mask of a cold stare. 

"How did you know about that?" he snarled. 

"Ha, even a human could hear what you said back at the village," spat Inuyasha. 

"Why?" asked Kegome, lack of sleep making her bleary. 

The wolf sat down calmly. "Only because he has something she wants of course. The Jewel shards? Yes, but you know of that already after that battle with the wolf youkai after this whelp tossed you into the well don't you?" he nodded his head in Inuyasha's direction, a smirk slit his features at the amazed look on the girl's face. "Anyway, I wouldn't worry about that, its the least of your concerns at the moment. Her anger is far more powerful then anything Naraku could dish out. Besides, she'll be leaving him behind soon, he's much too weak and she's had enough of killing for him to get the shards. Next he's bound to ask her to kill someone she does not want to." The wolf snorted, disgusted. 

"What do you mean by that?" asked Inuyasha. The wolf sighed. 

"Questions questions! You never stay silent for long do you?" he asked, looking at the hanyou. This time it was the half-breed's turn to snort. 

"Not when I have questions that I don't have the answers too and I'm talking with an 'all knowing dragon' that can answer them," he retorted. This brought a glare from the cloaked dragon. 

"Fine. What I mean is that she feels that he'll soon ask her to kill someone she doesn't want to die, yet." 

"WHO?!" growled the hanyou. The wolf's eyes bore into his own. 

"You should feel honored, she's saving you from having your hide tanned on Naraku's wall." This brought a startled look from everyone in the small camp and a small gasp from Kegome. 

"W-what are you talking about mongrel?" asked the awe-struck Inuyasha savagely. 

"I'm talking about her saving your puny life pup!" growled the wolf seconds after laying down. 

"Don't antagonize him, Inuyasha. Besides he didn't come here to answer your questions," Miroku said, looking up from the wolf to the hanyou. He was answered with an aggravated grumble from Inuyasha. 

"That's right. I came here to tell you a remedy to Mistress' anger," nodded the wolf. 

"But I have a question," said Kegome, who was now fully awake and excited. "How did she come about you? And you said that its your blood that's making her this way, what do you mean by that? And-" Kegome began only to be cut off by the glares from the group. "What?" she asked innocently. The wolf sighed. 

"I suppose I'll have to tell you the whole story if you're to be satisfied." He looked up. "I'll tell you through your minds though. Because this jaw is not designed for such carrying on." And with that he lowered his gaze and closed his azure eyes. "Close your eyes and I shall begin," he said and the darkness swallowed the group.

*

__

The demon was a fool. His anger got the better of him when I refused his blood and he tried to pry me from the stump, but I was granted the power to steal the soul from any creature that I refused and by doing so was granted the power to seek out the human that would bring me back by any means necessary. So I searched for the human that would set me free. Kegome, you were nearly her, I could feel it, but not quite. I had one month to find the girl and so I thought that you, Kegome, would lead me to her. You did. This brought a confused furrowing of the brow of the girl. _I followed you down the Bone-eater's well and looked for her in your time. I found her. In what you call, America. She was a girl with the heart of a child, just as the prophecy said, tinged with the mind of a woman. Her mind had advanced passed the stage of childhood from a recent death of her grandfather. It softened her, yet at the same time, hardened her as well and her eyes took a gleam of fear, and then hatred. The prophecy spoke truly. I possessed her sister, and gave her a dieses that would kill her, slowly, with such evidence that she could not ignore it. Then I went to her other family members, an uncle and a grandmother. They all began to die, or, in her sister's case, slowly decay._ The scene that they envisioned made Inuyasha and Miroku cringe and ball their fists and Kegome take a quick breath. _Hold your anger. I was selfish, but I wouldn't have traded it. When her sister died, she snapped and her anger became hatred that knew no bounds. I compelled her to walk in her backyard woods, where I opened a portal like the Bone-Eaters well. She saw you, Inuyasha, at the tree stump when I refused you. Of course she knew nothing of the prophecy, but it didn't matter. I know you saw the golden light I emitted, just as the prophecy foretold. She excepted me, and when I was touching her skin, my powers came back. Only, I couldn't use them, and so I had to pass them on to her. One shard of the Jewel gave me power enough to speak with her and give her some of my powers and as I gained more shards, her power grew. With four shards I was able to pass on my shape-shifting power, though she now only shapes into what she was the reincarnation of; a wolf, even though she has the power to change into any creature desirable. But, she excepted the challenge, to get away from her own world, but also to make her stronger. She knew that by the deaths, I had made her mind stronger, and now she wanted bodily strength. I told her that she needed to collect the Jewel shards, to help me regain my powers and return to my former state, for I knew if there was any hope of me regaining my true shape, then I would need the Jewel's power. So she set out. But she knew more of this world then most, and somehow, she said a box told her, she knew people from this time and what was going to happen before it did, like when she watched your battle with the hell-painter, as she called him, before he was absorbed by his own ink. And when she told me about Kikyou. Yes, she knows about the 'dead' priestess, so don't be so shocked. She knows many things still to come, but knows too that they could bring about disaster if told. She came across you three, well, in a way, she knew you were there, only she could not predict the demon going out into the road when she stalked him. But she knew you were there, and did not run. We had been trailing you, much to the confusion of myself. But she knew that you had those Jewel Shards, and she seemed almost drawn to you, as if, and I think this is true, she only knew _your_ fates. But it doesn't matter. She is powerful now, and nothing will stand in her way. But now, that is not why I came here. Now I've told my tale, and now I will tell you, why her anger is so great. As she gained the jewel's fragments, she installed them in the hilt of my prison, her sword. Don't get any ideas, Inuyasha, the sapphire in my hilt cannot be broken, ancient magic has insured that I will forever suffer as a whole, not in pieces; ever. As I gained more shards, as you know, it gave me power, and so I installed her with even more of my great energy. A power that used to make the most powerful demons quiver in fear. A power that took the magic of many to bind, a power that will not be bound again once I have the Shikon no Tama. But the more power I give her, the more of my own blood that flows in her body because my energy is so strong it overpowers her human blood, although I question the idea that she is a full-blooded human. Anyway, with my blood comes my anger for the ones that bound me, but because she hates her own race, yes, she _hates the human race, _my anger has become her own. Don't look so shocked, she realized the weakness of her fellow kin, and if she knew that I said that, I'd be cutting mountains with a dull blade. Very painful. But she swore to herself she'd never bond with such disgusting creatures, much less breed with them. She reasons this statement by saying that she doesn't want to contribute to such a shameful race of creatures. But I think, that by breeding her, she will calm, and so can focused on her mission more clearly without the aggravation of her times of uncontrollable rage. Frankly, you two were lucky when you caught her when you did, Inuyasha and Kegome. She calms at certain times, and you caught her just a few days after those times and so the demeanor wore off into that week you spent with her. Now, Miroku, she told me of your need, well, lust I should say, and so I began planning that perhaps she could be bred and calmed so she may achieve her mission. Now, monk, do you except my offer? Now, I warn you, she will be hard to win, for I doubt that even I have won her over yet, and we have been one for months now. But she'll be extremely stubborn, maybe even..well...difficult at times. You take this task at your own risk, so if you refuse, it is understandable. But I bid you to take it, for everyone's sake, for perhaps the worlds._

*

With a heavy sigh, they awoke, opening their eyes to the low ambers of the fire, feeling as if waking from a dream. The wolf looked at all of them for a moment, lingering on the monk before standing. "Now you know all you need to know, I will answer no more questions and you should know not to ask the girl any. I have to go, my time of freedom ends at dawn, and if she finds me here, I will pay dearly." He rose and turned around as the stunned trio watched him, silence cut only by Shippo's murmurs in his dreams. Inuyasha was the first to recover from the experience. 

"Wait!" 

The wolf paused and looked back. "What? I told you, no more questions. I'm drained from the nights hunting and my tale. She will seek you out when the time is right. She knows where you'll all be, and who your next adventure will involve. But monk, remember my offer, even though your new ally shall prove to be...challenging to resist. But I'm sure we'll meet again before that time comes...." and with a smirk and a small wave of his raven tail, the wolf disappeared into the forest. 


	10. Breaking an Alliance and Another Meeting...

__

The Welder of BlackFire:

Thorn's Past Life-A Mysterious Ally

Chapter Nine: Breaking of Alliance and Another Meeting with Sesshomaru

"Where have you been, Thorn?" asked the baboon-clothed man. The woman was leaning wearily against the wall of Naraku's castle wall. Her eyes opened, glowing a bright green in the dawn. 

"Doing what you bid of me," she retorted. "Nothing less." 

Naraku looked up at her, his red eyes glowing from beneath the mask. "But what more?" his deep voice asked. She looked up quickly, a fierce glare held only in check by the hum of BlackFire. 

"What do you mean?" The sharpness of her tone brought the hanyou's eyes level with her own, but it was uncertain if the question was meant for the hanyou or the sword. 

"I mean that you didn't return immediately from your mission, and I am interested in where you were.." he said, his eyes holding her own before he was seemingly forced to glance away.

"I let BlackFire go hunting," replied the woman, turning her head to look at an interesting spot on the far wall. 

"Hmm. I see. He massacred many demons in the wood. The scent of blood was overwhelming." He chuckled. "It does not matter anymore. I have one more mission for you, Thorn. The reward for completion of this mission will be extremely generous."

This brought the black-clad woman's head jerking toward the hanyou. Realization glinted in her eyes, and Naraku did not miss its sparkle. She straightened, no longer leaning on the wall, and put her arms to her sides. 

"Is something wrong?" asked the half-demon in his melodious tone.

"Yes," she said, retrieving her staff from the wall to her right and looking at its wooden hilt critically. "I'm done. I will not kill them."

This made Naraku straighten and look up, startled. "What makes you think 'they' are the ones I want you to do away with?" he asked innocently, only to receive a side-way's glare from the woman. "Ahh yes, sometimes I forget exactly what you're capable of with your physic powers. Which makes you a perfect choice for this mission. Now, they are powerful, but I am confident you can take care of th-"

"I said no. My mind will not be changed. They are too important to the future for me to kill them, and when I already know their weaknesses at that. I will be going now. Find another servant to do your bidding," and with that she turned and left out the door by her side. She paused, and turned her head to meet his gaze with her right eye. "You will find him a mile south of here if I am certain." She turned her back to the hanyou, who remained in his emotionless state as she left the grounds of his castle.

*

The tall Inu-Youkai lord stopped, emotionless eyes staring straight ahead of him. 

"What's the matter my Lord?" squawked Jaken, the ugly toad demon.

"We're being followed," the silver-haired youkai said quietly, threat in his voice. At this the petrified toad spun around, searching the trees and bushes for signs of life. 

A quiet chuckle wafted from the tree-tops. A shuffle murmured from the leaves of the trees and a soft, almost untraceable double padding of feet landing on the thick blanket of rotting forest foliage, vibrating in the ground sounded.

"I should have known I couldn't trail you for long without your knowing," came a cool voice as a shadow emerged from the deeper shadows that surrounded them. 

The lord's head turned to his right, his golden eyes piercing into the darkness. 

"You should have known that you couldn't trail me at all without my knowing, human," spoke the youkai, his face an unreadable slab of granite, his voice its usual coldness. The dark woman frowned. 

"Well, then it looks like my training has not been fierce enough and I shall have to try harder in it," she said, giving a backward glance to a shamefully humming sword. 

__

She smells of human blood, yet her stalking abilities seem that of a demon. How is that; unless she is half demon? No, she carries no traits of a youkai, her blood was surely once that of pure human. But now that I concentrate harder, I can smell demonic blood in her. Puzzling, thought the Inu-Youkai, slitting his eyes.

"It would seem so," he said in his quietly fluid voice. "Who are you, and what do you want?" 

Tearing her bluish glare from the seemingly pleading song of the sword, she met the demon's gaze, her eyes transforming from their angered welkin-blue to startling emerald. A smile twitched at the corners of her mouth.

"My name..is Thorn, Sesshoumaru," she said, moving gracefully to put a hand on her hip. "And I wanted nothing but to see if you are who you are. The lord of the western lands. But I already saw you were."

__

Saw? Sesshoumaru thought.

"Yes, Saw. Your battle with The Hanyou. But I shouldn't have been surprised when you gained the Tetsusaiga once again."

  
_Wait...its Her. That girl that was with my brother.._

She smirked, knowing his thoughts. 

"Your that girl that was with Inuyasha. The one that took up his battle when he was unable to," he said, his eyes narrowing to slits. "I should kill you for interfering, wench. But, why weren't you with him-?"

"In your recent battle with him? The one that was lost because of Kegome and her arrows? Oh, I grew bored with them. I cannot interfere for long, lest I change what is meant to be." She smiled. "But even though I wasn't there to see it in person, I must admit that your last battle with your brother was impressive, even to my little friend," she said, nodding to the sword that glowed grumpily on her back.

A light breeze floated around the trio, making the cloth of the youkai lord rustle and sigh.

"But I did not smell you. You couldn't have been there," he said, his golden eyes searching for an answer in the depths of her green ones.

"No, I wasn't. But that does not mean there was no way for me to witness it, even if I was not in the mist of it," she smiled, as if laughing to herself about in inside joke that he clearly could not understand. 

"Hmm," was all he said, as if contemplating whether or not he really cared. But the glimmer in his canine-eyes spoke otherwise. 

The smile faded from her face and the sword on the woman's back began to glow sickly, its murmurings desperate. She gave a stern shake of her head and turned back to Sesshoumaru, her eyes glinting with a ferocious fire.

"But why are you here? Are you still not allies with the Hanyou?" he asked, his voice not only curious, but suspicious. She had approached without fear, even though she seemed to know that she had formed an alliance with one of his enemies, and he was not one to get caught in a trap. 

"I am allies with many, I try not to form too many enemies, even if BlackFire insists upon doing so," she sighed and the sword grumbled unhappily. 

"Hmm. Is that why you are really here? To make amends?" he asked, still confused, but not showing it.

"Well, in a way; yes."

  
"But that's not exactly it, is it?"

She threw a glare to him, but its intensity was lost on the wave from her eyes to his.

"No, I come here to make alliances, not to apologize about my past actions."

"Watch your tongue when you speak to the great Lord Sesshoumaru!" piped up Jaken in his chirping voice.

A glare from both Sesshoumaru and Thorn burned in the air to the toad demon, a cool one from the Inu-leige and a fiery one from the sword-welding woman. 

"If I were you, I'd watch my tongue when talking to _anyone_, before you loose it," retorted Thorn threateningly with an annoyed snort. The toad youkai again coward behind his monarch's robes.

She glared down at Jaken, eyes burnishing sapphires. Sesshoumaru stepped in front of the sparking gaze of the black-clad woman, breaking its electric tie.

"Oh come now! I wanted to kill him without a blink!" she cried quietly, her glare turning from the defenseless toad demon to the great dog-demon. His expression flirted with the thought of a smirk. 

"Unfortunately, his skull is too think to knock sense into it," the lord said, his voice on the verge of amusement.

She straightened. "Who said I was going to knock any sense into it? Just make it explode with a persuasive thought...." she said, again meeting the gaze of the Youkai with a grin, and to her surprise, his lips curled into a smile. 

"Well, now there's a surprise. I don't think, in all my Seeing, that I've viewed you smiling but for once," she said, her own face contorting to a sly smirk.

"Yes, well your 'Seeing', as you put it, doesn't seem to be all that reliable, does it?" he asked.

"Well I guess I need more training on my Seeing as well as my stalking, eh?"

The setting moon's gleam brought a startling silver sheen to Sesshoumaru's soft locks. A caressing, warm breeze rolled along on the air, causing the luxurious falls of hair, both dark and light, to sway and dance in a shinning display of beauty. The tall trees that surrounded the trio brushed the air tenderly with their lithe, jade flora, perfuming the air with their earthy scent. The moon's arcane rays of light spilling into the small area were the trees had grown less dense, skipping through the tree branches as a fairy on fragile wings. 

The remainder of the shadows that had concealed Thorn dispersed, creeping into the crevices of the wood to reveal her form without the night's stifling cloak as dawn approached at Sesshoumaru's back. Her once raging navy eyes shone in the dawn's approach a rich, liquid chartreuse. 

The rising sun's rays revealed what lay in the shadows not moments before, yet in its position, was forced to banish another into the shadows. The sovereign's face became plastered in darkness, only his golden eyes kept their proud sheen.

A shuffle of the youkai lord's white robes brought the gazes of the two down on the pitiful Jaken, who had risked a glance from behind his master's clothing at the sudden silence. 

Sesshoumaru's gaze was the first to return to the other.

"I must be on my way," said the Inu-Youkai meaningfully, capturing the green gaze of the woman once again. She nodded and turned away. But she hesitated and looked back in a quick glance to meet with Sesshoumaru's golden eyes once again. 

At a slight buzz from the sword, the woman turned back and leapt high into the trees, retreating into their safety. 

Jaken's mouth opened to speak, only to be silenced with a quick glare from his master. They moved on through the forest.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Authoress' Note: I can't believe I forgot to put a disclaimer down last time! I was just so rushed for time since I was putting up another fic. Hmm, mysterious ni? Hai! Very mysterious. Oh! I just can't wait! Tonight the new episodes of Inuyasha come on! -grins happily-

Inuyasha: Your really going to stay up until 12:30 just to watch me? Even though you have to be up at six?

J: -snort- no! I'm staying up to watch Sesshoumaru. But since it looks like Sesshy wont be appearing, I'll just have to deal with watching Koga

Koga: -puffs chest up proudly- you see, Inuyasha? This is why I like Kegome! She's caring!

YELP!

Koga: -holds smarting tail- what was that for? -growl-

Inuyasha: -pretends to be innocent-

All: -glare-

J: -gets out wooden spoon- dammit Inuyasha! -beings to hit him-

BAM!!!!!!!! BAM!!!!!!!!!!! BAM!!!!!!!!!! BAM!!!!!! BAM!!!!!!!!! BAM!!!!!

J's mother: Is everything okay in there?

J: -hiss- everyone hide!

All:-hides-

J: Yes mother! Everything's fine!

JM (J's mother): Who are you talking to, dear?

J: ahh, just, ahh, myself! You know…

JM: Are you talking to your imaginary friends again?

All: -snicker-

J: -hits all of them- she's talking about you, you nitwits!-hiss-

All: -holds various bumps on head-

JM: What was that noise?

J: Just dropped the remote. 

JM: Lunch will be ready in a few minutes -leaves hall outside of door-

All: -whew-

J: Koga dear, can you do the disclaimer. I'd have Inuyasha do it, but he's not good enough anymore

Koga: certainly! -smug look to seething Inuyasha

Inuyasha: -being held back my Miroku- Lemme at him! I'll rip that damn tail off his ass!

J: -hiss-

Inuyasha: -grumble- I've lost my job. -sob-

All: -rolls eyes- Just go Koga!

Koga: J does not own Inuyasha comp, nor I, although she does own Thorn and BlackFire.

J: -claps- Good boy! -throws him a doggy bone, which he quickly eats- (can you imagine that? Lol)


	11. The Lord and the Dragon

__

The Welder of BlackFire:

Thorn's Past Life-A Mysterious Ally

Chapter Ten: The Lord and the Dragon

Days had passed since Sesshoumaru and Jaken had met up with the mysterious young woman. The lord sat at a campfire with Jaken babbling on about nothing at all while Sesshoumaru thought, his golden eyes reflecting the light of the fire blankly. 

"Lord Sesshoumaru, is something the matter?" asked the toad-demon when he noticed the intense silence. The inu-youkai looked up.

"No," he said simply. He looked past his servent, into the shadows of the trees. He listened, his demonic ears soaking up every sound within a given radius of the camp. He knew he was being followed since the day before this one past, but he could not get a clear reading on the creature's energy, making him slightly edgy. This was why he was here, still in the woods, when he could be back at his castle.

His eyes wandered around the camp. Whatever it was, it was growing closer. Suddenly the energy seemed to have shifted, or maybe it just unmasked, but he now felt as if the source of the energy was familiar. 

He brought his head up with a jerk, his golden eyes gleaming with the reflection of the nightly stars. 

"You can come out now," he said quietly, but he knew the keen ears of the stalker were listening and could hear him clearly. Jaken turned around expectently, quivering.

Without bothering to mask his footsteps, a black wolf emerged from the shadows, the white scar on his forehead bright and startling against his ebony coat. He flashed his ivory teeth in a sinister grin, the glinting of his teeth matching that in his navy eyes. 

"You," whispered the Inu-Youkai. "I remember you."

"As you should, I had the chance to kill you and gave it up because my Mistress wanted to protect your hanyou brother," the wolf spat. "I should have killed you when I had the chance. It was so obvious that she would find you next after all she had told me of her Sight. But I was not a believer then, and now I pay for it. Don't get in our way. Do not distract her from her mission. Or next time I am free, she will not stop me from my killing you. If you're smart you'll keep your distance. You were lucky last time, she was kind. Prehaps next time she will not be so kind, I know that I will not." The wolf's brassy voice snapped at the fire, making the flames flicker and dance.

"You cannot kill me without her permission to take your true form. In the shape you are in now, you cannot kill me, and so you are in no position to be making threats," countered Sesshoumaru placidly. His words made the wolf's eyes swirl with heat and his lips curl farther from his fangs.

"I am in a fine position to be making threats," Black Fire snarled at the calm Sesshoumaru and cowering Jaken. "But you, are not! My Mistress is everything to me, to the future! Do not tempt me to kill you now so that her mind can be focused on her mission! I have killed many before, and am not afraid to kill again, even if it means killing someone she has Seen in the future!"

"You are a fool. You should take some lessons from your mistress. She seems to have more sense then yourself by not aggrivating me," said Sesshoumaru calmly, his eyes again straying to the fire.

"She knows everything she does because of me! I've made her what she is! It seems though, that I have not made our lessons clear enough," growled the raven wolf, his eyes now glowing as fierce and as golden as the youkai lords. Then, as if realizing what he said, he cursed himself violently before turning back to the youkai, his glare raging a palomino battle of fire. 

"Remember what I say. Do _not_ interfere with our mission," hissed BlackFire. 

He turned sharply, leaving the thick scent of old, dry, youkai blood to tease the lord's sensitive nose as he again merged with the shadows. The patriarch looked up to the wolf's retreating form.

"Hmm," was all he said.

"M-m-my lord! Who was t-that?" asked the trembling Jaken after a few moments of shocked silence.

"That, Jaken, was the dragon who attacked me when I aquired the Tetsusaiga the time before last. It lives inside of girl's sword from what he told me in our match. He's a different part of her that seems to be able to roam at her will. He's a powerful demon."

"But you can take him can't you Lord Sesshoumaru?"

"Hmm," was all he said, closing his eyes. His mind was on something else though. Until a second ago, he could sense the youkai's energy as it retreated, but now it seemed to have dissapeared. Wait! Now the energy was different, it was....hers! BlackFire must have transformed back into Thorn. Well, the body must have. 

Sesshoumaru looked up, back into the forest. 

"What is it My Lord?" 

"It seems we have another visiter," replied the Inu-Youkai. "Its not nice to spy, Thorn." The slight raise in his voice brought a 'harumph' from the dark forest and the tell-tale double thumps of feet landing on the ground. 

She emerged from the shadows a moment later, seemingly oblivious to what had occured not minutes before. 

"It seems I cannot sneak up on you, Sesshoumaru!" she said gaily, sitting across from him and Jaken. 

"No, you can't. But your stalking skills have improved just a little bit in the past few days," he said.

"You mean you knew I was following you and you didn't even say anything?" she asked, her voice surprised. 

He smiled a sad smile. "Yes." 

She sighed an exasperated sigh and threw up her hands. "Well I wont learn if I don't know when I'm detectable!"

"You'll learn. Jaken, stop clinging to me like that, I don't like it." 

The toad youkai stepped away from his master, loosening his grip on the white robes. "Are you sure we can trust her, Lord Sesshoumaru?" he asked, fear running jovial up his spine in glee.

"Yes, they are two different souls, and we have nothing to fear from her," the lord said quietly. 

"Hmm? What do you mean 'nothing to fear from her'? Do you take me as weak, Sesshoumaru?" she asked, crossing her arms, amusement hinting her features. 

"Not at all, you're just not as powerful as him," he said, nodding to the heated sword on her back, which was glowing an angry ice blue and seething in enmity. 

"I see. Well we are nearly one and the same, so do you care to take a wager on that?" she taunted playfully. He looked at her, hearing the sliver of intrepidness in her voice. 

__

She is still not afraid of me, even though she seems to know how powerful I am, thought the Inu-Youkai. 

"No, I do not," he said simply, to be answered by a disappointed 'huh'. 

"Quiet," she growled softly over her shoulder, only loud enough for Sesshoumaru's sensitive youkai ears to hear. 

"What was that?" 

"Nothing, I was speaking to an annoying pest," she grumbled. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Authoress' Note: yay! Chapter ten! Sorry it took so long to update, I was just getting a ton of reviews from my other fic so I was putting chapters up there first. -sigh- but here it is! I'm finally getting into the plot too, and next chapter is going to get….mushy….maybe even a little lemon…perhaps. But, anyway, I'm rereading this fic and noticing how much the writing itself sucks, just bear with me here, I wrote the beginning many many months ago so it sucks. Anyway, I missed Inuyasha Thursday. -sob- SESSHOUMARU!

Sesshoumaru: yes?

J: -cries- I missed you coming on and bringing back that ogre thing! The purple guy that Naraku made! Now I'm so mad I just want to cry! -hugs him-

Sesshoumaru: 0.0

Miroku: J-chan, you are crying.

J: -growl- am not! -hits him over the head with METAL stirring spoon-

Miroku: okay! Who gave her the metal one?!

Sango: I did, I thought she needed something stronger than her wooden one…

Shippo: hey, that's not true! its because Inuyasha broke her other one

J: -in a rage- WHAT? NANI? WHAT???!!!!!

Shippo- oops. I wasn't supposed to say anything, was I? -looks at Sango and Kegome-

Sango&Kegome: no.

J: Sesshoumaru, be a dear and do the disclaimer while I beat the tar out of Inuyasha will you? -holds up butcher knife, smiling sweetly-

Inuyasha: 0.0'''' AHHH! SOMEONE HELP ME! -runs away while J chases-

J: GET BACK HERE YOU FUZZY-EARED PUP! I'M GOING TO _KILL_ YOU! -sprints, trying to catch up-

Inuyasha: -jumps out window and runs down the street, trying to get away-

Sesshoumaru: J does not own anyone from Inuyasha, she owns only Thorn and BlackFire. -calls to J- make sure to kill him slowly and save the death-swipe for me!

Inuyasha: -glares as he runs down the street-

J: WILL DO! -waves butcher knife as she sprints from sight-


	12. A Night Entwined

J: *takes a sip from glass* hmm, tastes like Lemon-aid. Oh, that's right, this chapter tastes just a little like that. Just a fore warning, so I'll have to up the rating wont I? *sigh* Oh well. Don't flame, you've been warned! Here's your fic.

__

The Welder of BlackFire:

Thorn's Past Life-A Mysterious Ally

Chapter Twelve: A Night Entwined 

"Why are you still here?" asked Sesshoumaru. They were walking through the forest, which was garbed in silken gold rays of sunlight that showered the surrounding foliage brilliantly. Leaves sighed in a silent breeze, every now and then a stray one falling to the moist earth to settle peacefully alongside dry pine needles and last years harvest of leaf litter.

"I have nowhere else to go," Thorn shrugged "and no other allies that I wish to be around."

"Are you saying I am an ally of yours now?"

"Yes," was all she said.

"And what if I object?" he asked curiously.

"It doesn't matter."

"It doesn't matter? Why not?"

"Because its not your choice," she said, a smile in her voice.

"Hmm." 

They traveled through the forest, their direction heading west, toward Sesshoumaru's castle. He had traveled east when he was being stalked, away from his castle, so that, in case of an enemy, they would not find his dwelling. The going was quick, but was slower than it could have been due to Jaken's waddling gait. 

"Don't you ever get tired of him? Having to wait for him like this?" she asked, exasperated after having to wait for the slow toad demon once again. 

"Don't you ever get tired of listening to a sword? I would have done away with it long ago if it kept buzzing in my ear like it does," quipped Sesshoumaru. At this BlackFire hissed angrily before silencing at Thorn's meaningful glare.

"I am a very tolerate person," she said.

"Yes, well so am I," he mused as Jaken stumbled up to the two, his two-headed staff bearing his weight as he puffed to a stop. 

"Hmm, you must be," she said.

"My Lord?" asked Jaken questioningly, eyeing the woman, still not comfortable with her traveling with his master and himself, even after such long weeks of traveling with her.

"Nothing, Jaken. Let's go," replied the youkai, continuing on. With a small sigh, Thorn turned as well, but not before scoffing at the small demon. 

Hours later, dusk fell, painting the sky shades of pink and maroon.

"We should camp now," said Sesshoumaru, stopping suddenly. 

"What? Its early yet, night hasn't even fallen!" exclaimed Thorn.

"Yes, well I say we should stop," said the Inu-youkai lord with an upraised eyebrow. Crossing her arms, the woman turned away with a snort. 

"I'll go gather firewood," was all she said, walking away into the thickening shadows.

"My Lord, I don't trust her. Not long ago she was threatening to kill you," said Jaken, looking up at his master, referring to a few weeks ago. Sesshoumaru did not reply for a moment, but stared off in the direction in which Thorn had taken.

"You should watch what you say when she is close, her hearing is as good as mine," Sesshoumaru said, turning away. 

"But Lord Sesshoumaru-" began the toad demon, but he was cut off by a golden gaze.

Camp was set up quickly and efficiently, with Thorn laying a large heap of dry wood by the fire's side when she returned not fifteen minutes later. 

Dusk had long since passed many hours before when Thorn opened her eyes, seemingly startled. She sat by the fire and up until a few minutes ago, had been dozing peacefully. She looked up, watching Sesshoumaru's face and listening to his steady breathing. She tapped into her physic powers, reading his mind. It was blank. 

__

He's asleep, good, she thought. She looked over to Jaken, who was snoring rhythmically. _Him too, perfect_.

She quietly got up, and walked stealthfully into the forest. 

Sesshoumaru's eyes flicked open, a fire glimmering in their golden depths, and not just from the dying ambers that sat smoldering in front of him. He placed another log on the fire, making the flames that still remained spark and hiss. 

__

I wonder where she thinks she is going, he thought when a distinct scent wafted to him. _What's that smell_? he asked, but he already knew the answer. It surprised him, but not entirely. He rose up slowly, brushing the dirt from his robes. He walked purposely in the direction where the woman had taken, following the clear scent trail she had left. When he entered the woods, he sped along, silent but for the relaxing sigh of whooshing wind as it swept across his clothes. 

"Why did you follow me?" she asked, without turning around to face the intruder. 

"Answer me Sesshoumaru!" she hissed, her muscles tense and trembling in anticipation of an argument. 

"I could ask why you are out here..." he began, standing in a tree not ten feet away from her back.

"But you already know. Your sense of smell is impressive," she grunted.

"A human could smell it and you know it. That's why you left," he said softly, his musical voice floating in the peaceful air, levitating there like a ghost, never really leaving the still zephyr.

"So it is," she said, her words hardly distinguishable. A sing-song hum came from BlackFire, seeming to hint at comfort and soothing, but it did quite the opposite. With one swift motion, Thorn had grabbed the sword as it glowed and cooed, ripping it from its leather thongs that bound it to her back. She hurled it at a large boulder, imbedding it three gouging inches into the dense stone. 

"You know better! Have you learned nothing?!" she cried, turning so she faced the steamy sword, who's tone suggested begging. It was then that Sesshoumaru saw the look in her eye, a sparking silver that gleamed and threatened. 

__

Is that why she didn't turn and face me? She did not want me to see this side of her? thought the lord. Growls came from her throat, and her hands clenched at her sides. She flashed her teeth, which had somehow grown into longer and more deadly fangs, and stalked toward the groveling broad-sided sword. Even her walk was different, more purposeful and bold. 

When she reached the sword she paused, listening as the slave-bound demon reasoned and pleaded. She sighed, and fell to her knees.

"Your right, the last thing we need is another massacre like before. I need to calm down," she said softly, closing her eyes and placing her hands on her lap, beginning to breath slowly and regularly. She opened her eyes a moment later, and they no longer gleamed a raging steely hue, but two colors merged, green and silver, battling to regain control over their host. What was a result was a swirling of the two dyes, a sparkling greenish silver that swam around black pupils. She exhaled deeply and sat back on her heels.

"Let's go back to camp," Sesshoumaru said softly, not wanting to disturb her.

"No. You go, I cannot," she said blankly, staring at the now quiet BlackFire. 

"Yes you can, now come along," he said, jumping down from the tree to stare at her back while she crouched there. 

"You don't seem to get it, Sesshoumaru. I will not go back." She stood up slowly, and crossed her arms. 

"You're just being stubborn."

"No, you don't understand. I can't just make the smell disappear," she spat, spinning around to face his towering frame, making her long russet locks spin around her torso and catch the moon's rays, making them shine faint gold. "I shouldn't have come now. I should have never come. But I shouldn't be taking this out on you," she said suddenly, looking away. "I'm just babbling on about something that you shouldn't be concerned about. Its not like you can do anything ab-" She froze, suddenly struck by what she was saying. She turned away with her back to him, a faint red flush painting her cheeks. 

The Inu-Youkai walked up behind her, she could hear his breath, feel his intense gaze. She bit her bottom lip, not trusting her mouth to open. She felt a small shiver go down her spine. Instinct made her grow larger, more intimidating, making her five foot three inch standard climb to five foot eight, directly under Sesshoumaru's chin. She felt small, helpless, and wanted to shift into a mouse and hide, but something made her stand there rigidly.

He took another step toward her, and it made her take a sharp breath. 

"You're wrong," he said in a deadly quiet voice.

"No, don't even think about it," she whispered with spite. "Don't you even think about that!" She turned around to face him, her face hard and stubborn. "I will not break my vow!"

"What is your vow?" he asked quizzically.

She hesitated for but a moment before saying, "Never to curse this world with another of such disgusting blood as a humans. I made that vow a year ago and I plan to keep it!"

Sesshoumaru thought a moment. "You can keep your vow, Thorn, and still get rid of your heat. You made that vow when you were human no doubt? Yes, well you are no longer human, and thus are not 'cursing the world' with such blood."

"No, there is still human blood in me!" she cried in a whisper. 

"Yes, but with youkai blood, the child will not be hardly human at all," replied Sesshoumaru. This brought her eyes up to meet his own, and he could see the constant flow of silver and green in her irises as they played a scene of surprise. 

"No, you can't do that! You'd be cursing your own line, and to a hum-ahh, hanyou at that," she countered, taking a step back. The lord followed her in that step, his long stride bringing him closer to her. 

"I can curse it if I please," was all he said, making her turn away, contemplating if an argument would be right for this time. No, she decided, it wouldn't.

When she said nothing, he leaned closer, bringing her gaze up to meet his own. 

"But I'll only curse it if my bitch is of the blood I consider valid," he said quietly. "And if she agrees," he added. When Thorn said nothing, he leaned down and brushed his lips against her own in a feather-light kiss. She sighed at the ardour of it, and reached up to receive another. He met her, and they exchanged another, harder, more demanding kiss. When they pulled back for the second time she smiled. 

"Would you considermy blood valid?" she asked quietly, softly.

"Yes. Do you agree to curse my line?" he asked.

"Yes," she breathed, closing her eyes to bear another kiss, longer and harder than the second, but still soft and questioning. She wrapped her arms around him as he placed his hand on her hip.

* 

The night edged away until the sky lightened into a peach bowl in the east, making the shadows lighten enough so that two bodies were visible laying on the green earth. Their arms wrapped around one another, keeping each other warm in the dawn's coolness. 

Thorn opened her eyes. She should have been up hours ago, but she was exhausted. Peeling her mate's arms from around her torso, she slowly eased away from him and began to regenerate her leather garments. Without BlackFire, she realized, it was much more difficult to use her energy in such ways. What would normally be a simple task, if it did take a little time, was draining.

__

It must be because I used all my energy last night, she thought to herself as she stood and walked over to Sesshoumaru's robe, which still was draped around the imprisoned sword. Picking up his robe, she placed BlackFire on new leather thongs while he awoke with a soft rumble.

"Shh, he needs to sleep," she whispered to him when she realized his mind was still in darkness, and thus she could not speak through her mind. He soon fell silent and Thorn smiled as she walked over to the Inu-Youkai. She placed the robe over him, blocking out the cold. 

With BlackFire renewing her energy, she shifted into her white wolf form and went back to where they had made camp the night before. Jaken was still asleep when she trotted up. Within a few moments, she had placed a sleeping spell on the hideous toad demon, making sure he did not awake until she returned. Turning away, she headed back to the clearing and Sesshoumaru. 

When she stepped into the thinning of trees, she was greeted with a warning growl, which she returned, yet with more tenderness. Stepping from the shadows into the newly lighted grounds, she saw Sesshoumaru, looking up expectedly. She padded up to him, feeling his exhaustion on his sigh. Trotting up next to him, she sat down, looking up at him as he kneeled there, sitting on his heels. Her eyes, he noticed, were no longer tinted with silver, but their normal, bright green. But there was something else in her gaze, something that made their edges hint a soft gray, but not an angry silver. Caught in her wondrous gaze, he did not notice when she returned to her human shape until she snuggled close to him, still holding his eyes. 

"Where did you go?" he asked, placing his arm around her bare shoulder and pulling her closer. 

"Hmm, to make sure Jaken wouldn't be asking any questions," she said quietly, pulling herself closer to him. He looked down questioningly, only to be met by a warm grin, when he noticed that she had lost her murderous fangs.

"He'll be sleeping until I undo the spell," she supplied, nuzzling his neck. He returned the gesture, savoring her scent as he burrowed in her dark hair. BlackFire buzzed hesitatingly, his sapphire glow soft. Thorn pulled back, a confused look on her face. 

"What's wrong?" Sesshoumaru asked.

"He says...he says he was wrong. He says Fate has chosen our path, and it wasn't the one he had hoped to take," she said haltingly, looking up to her mate. "What is he talking about? He says that the message was for you, but, I don't understand."

"Its nothing, just something we had talked about," he replied. She smirked.

"If you think I wont find out what it is, you're wrong. I'll figure it out," she said, with her old vigor. She stood up, but too quickly, and fell back onto her heels. With a grumble, she reached her feet. 

"Are you in pain?" he asked, looking up at her. She looked down, almost scoffing. But when she realized his question was genuine, she replied.

"Some. Nothing I can't handle," she said, placing her hands on her hips and looking at him meaningfully. "It reminds me that it wasn't a dream, and I want to know that."

"Hmm," he replied, turning his gaze away to search for the remainder of his robes. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Authoress': told you I'd be a limy! Agg, I'm so sleepy! So I'll make this note quick. I'll even do the disclaimer, just so I don't have to argue.

All: -sigh- awesome.

J: -rolls eyes- anyway, I own only Thorn and BlackFire. See ya!


	13. Say Goodbye to the Shards

__

The Welder of BlackFire:

Thorn's Past Life-A Mysterious Ally

Chapter Thirteen: Say Good-Bye to the Shards

Dawn crested over the horizon. The first rays shone in the hanyou's golden eyes as he began to wake. 

"You sure do sleep a lot, Inuyasha," came a familiar growl from above him. He immediately jumped to his feet, balancing easily on the tree branch where he had been sleeping, his hands on the hilt of the Tetsusaiga. He looked up, seeing a woman sitting peacefully watching the sun rise. 

"Thorn! Where the hell did you come from?" he growled. She looked down at him, her eyes unreadable as golden rays reflected off their surface. 

"I want to know how your companions can trust their lives in your care when you sleep so heavily," she said, turning back to the horizon, ignoring his question.

"I want to know why you're here tormenting me instead of Naraku!" he growled back at her. This brought a sinister glare from the woman. She jumped down from her branch on to his, facing the him. Her staff appeared at her hand, and it went to his throat in a flash. She almost smiled. 

"I am curious as to how you found that out. But I guess you should know that I have split my alliance with the villain," she said.

"So you came back here to annoy me!" he hissed quietly, making sure not to wake his companions.

"I just came for a visit, to talk to Kegome mostly. And you'll be happy to know I will not be staying, I have a new ally in which I keep company with." She pulled back the sharp point of her staff and jumped down from the tree with the grace of a cat. Grumbling, Inuyasha followed suit. 

He took a deep sniff at the air as he stretched. He paused. Her scent, it was different, changed, but still the same. She smelled mostly of river water, and the scent was hidden beneath. He watched her a moment. She moved differently now too, her gait, if possible, prouder than before, seeming to know that no harm would come to her. Before she had been almost shifty compared to this, her eyes darting, as if looking for trouble, but now they only turned at some sounds that hinted threat, wise to the world around her. She kept her staff at her side.

__

She's taken to the defencive! Inuyasha thought. _She's not out looking for a fight, but almost seems as if waiting for one. But her gait says that she doesn't care if danger came and started to strangle her. She's confident, that's for sure._

The sun broke entirely over the horizon, and the camp was awake and shinning. Thorn watched as the group ate their breakfast, gazing off into space and answering questions with a touch of a growl. 

A whoosh sighed near her ear, and she pulled her staff up in time to block a blow to her shoulder from the Tetsusaiga. She turned around, her swirling glare piercing into Inuyasha.

"Inuyasha!" Kegome cried. 

"What did you do that for?!" Shippo exclaimed.

"Yes, Inuyasha, explain yourself," said Miroku, his voice stained with slight aggravation. He was amazed at her skill, how she could block the blow without hardly looking at her opponent. 

__

But it seems BlackFire did not get his wish, her anger is still very great, the monk bemused at the woman's angry glare, one that he had received what seemed like ages ago. 

"Huh. You actually think she wouldn't block it? Your skills have improved, even if just a little, Thorn," Inuyasha huffed. He didn't like the look of anger she was giving him. 

"I have a very good teacher," she countered, her voice deadly soft. 

"Yeah? And who's your teacher?" he asked with a smirk in his voice.

"Inuyasha! Its not polite to pry!" Kegome said, a warning in her tone.

Thorn's lips curled in a sad smile that never reached her eyes. "Its a secret."

"Yeah right, you just don't want us to know," he said gruffly, resheathing the Tetsusaiga and sitting down. 

"Exactly," she said, placing her staff by her side.

__

When she traveled with us before, she always put her staff away, confident. She's paranoid on protection. This is confusing, the hanyou thought.

The day wore on into early afternoon, and they sat down to make a small camp to eat. Thorn refused to eat. Inuyasha sat up in a tree, being the lookout after scarfing his meal. He was thinking, looking in the distance. He looked down suspiciously at the black-clad woman below him, who seemed to be listening with her eyes closed. Her hand lay over her bare stomach, beneath the edge of her top and her face was blank, showing no emotion. Then it hit him. He jumped down directly behind her. She didn't move. 

"How much longer do you have?" he asked, his arms crossed, his voice flat.

Thorn's eyes opened. "I don't know yet. It depends on how much I eat," she said. "Its different for me then it is for normal humans or demons." He seemed satisfied by this answer and nodded. Silence cheerfully began to dance around them.

"Ahh, do you mind explaining, you two?" asked Miroku when neither elaborated or chose to inform the rest of the group about what they were speaking of.

"Yeah, what are you guys talking about?" Shippo asked. 

"This isn't for the ears of kits," Thorn said. She stared at the kitsune, and his eyes began to droop. He lay down next to Kegome, and began to breath regularly. 

"What did you do to him?!" Kegome asked, her voice worried.

"He's just taking a nap," replied the woman. 

"Are you going to answer our questions?" asked the monk. 

Thorn sighed, "Yes."

"Well?" the monk prodded.

"Basically, BlackFire told me of his excursion to your campfire the last time I saw you. He told me everything he said to you and, frankly, you lost your chance, Miroku," she said, smirking.

"What do you mean, 'lost my chance'?" he asked, clearly confused. She didn't say anything.

"Agg! Don't you get it you stupid monk? Someone beat you to the punch! She's already been taken," Inuyasha said, exasperated at Miroku's stupidity. 

Kegome and Miroku stared at Thorn in utter disbelief. 

"But I want to know how you figured it out, Inuyasha," she said, giving a sideways glance at the hanyou. He snorted.

"It wasn't that hard. You smelled different for one, and the river water only hid part of it. You moved different too, I noticed that you had taken to the defensive, and you only proved it when I attacked you. You didn't fight back," he said, almost disappointingly. 

"Hmm, I should have known that your powers were that good," was all she said.

"When are you due?" Miroku asked, shaking the shock from his mind.

"I've already answered this question once," she growled. 

"Well what did you mean by it depending on how much you eat?" Kegome asked shyly when she realized what she ment. 

Thorn sighed and closed her eyes. "My body doesn't work like a normal humans or even that of a normal demon, since the cub is demonic, so if I eat a lot, which I have been doing too much lately, then it grows much faster. If I continued my feeding schedule, it should be born in a few months or so." She shrugged. "BlackFire seems to think that I am too irritable like this and that I should eat more and so bear it sooner," she snorted, a growl rumbling in her throat. 

"I think he's right," Inuyasha whispered, hulking down in his shirt, his voice a breath on the wind, but that didn't keep Thorn's sensitive ears from picking up the sound. She turned to face him, her eyes glaring chasms of silvery green and her growl growing louder. 

"Better watch your tongue, Inuyasha. I wouldn't mind adding it to a collection of mine," she said, amusement and threat hinting in her seductive tones. 

"Be careful, Inuyasha, I'm sure she's very capable of it," Miroku said, fidgeting were he sat, making Shippo stir. Thorn's glare turned toward the monk.

"I am, Miroku, very perceptive," Thorn said, before Inuyasha made a rash retort. "But I didn't come here for tongues. I wanted to tell you that the jewel shards that are currently in BlackFire's possession will be out of your reach until I turn back into my..hanyou form." Her statement brought confused looks from the group, and a groggy one from the slowly waking kitsune. "BlackFire told you that I am a reincarnation of a wolf, and that with his shape-shifting powers I am able to turn into one. But now that I am with cub, I will have to stay in my wolfish form, because the cub is much more canine then human. So by doing this, the Shikon shards will be unreachable, because I know that Inuyasha is still looking for a way to get them." She smirked as the hanyou growled, burrowing lower in his shirt. "So I came to tell you that it will be pointless for you to come after them for a while, for if my mate were to find you, well, let's just say that death will soon be a close friend of yours." 

She stood up, taking her staff, and sighed. "You have been warned. Especially you, Inuyasha. I'd stop your train of thought right now if you hold your life to any value."

  
"WILL YOU CUT THAT OUT, THORN? I'm sick and tired of you doing that!" Inuyasha fumed, stamping up and down. The woman glared at him before fading into the shadows. 

"What's going on?" Shippo asked, holding his head. 

"Nothing," Inuyasha grumbled, turning away. Miroku and Kegome looked at each other and sighed.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Authoress' Note: yay! Another chapter done! I'm going to try to post the rest of this story ASAP. So I'll quick have the disclaimer done. This final disclaimer will be for the rest of the story.

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN INUYASHA AND COMP. I OWN ONLY THORN AND BLACKFIRE.

Thank you and review!


	14. The Mated Pair and the Battle

__

The Welder of BlackFire:

Thorn's Past Life-A Mysterious Ally

Chapter Fourteen: The Mated Pair and the Battle 

"Inuyasha! Where are you going?" Kegome asked as the half-demon jumped down a steep hill on the side of the road. 

"Thorn's around here somewhere," he whispered, sniffing the air. "The air smells strongly of her scent. That might mean that the shards are within reach."

"What are you mumbling about?" the girl asked, stopping her bike and watching him. 

"I said, Thorn is near here!" he hissed, grumbling annoyances to himself.

"Who's Thorn?" Sango asked Miroku. The demon exterminator gave the monk a confused look while resting a hand on her fire-cat, Kirara. 

"She's an old ally of Inuyasha's and Kegome's," he replied, watching the hanyou as he searched the slope.

"So where did she go?" the exterminator asked.

"To have a child," Miroku said, receiving a glare from Sango. "No, I'm not its father," he said with a disappointed sigh in answer to her well-placed glare. 

"This way!" Inuyasha said, jumping down into the young shadows of the golden-hued trees, whose leaves were just beginning to fade from their bright green of early summer to the worn green of late summer.

"Inuyasha!" Kegome yelled. With an exasperated sigh she turned to Miroku and Sango. "C'mon, we should follow him. You know what she said about the father."

"Yes, if her mate finds Inuyasha near Thorn, he'll kill him," Miroku said as they made their way in the direction Inuyasha had taken.

__

There, the scent is stronger. Huh? What's Sesshoumaru's scent doing around here? He must be looking for trouble, Inuyasha thought, clenching his fangs and slowing his pace a fraction. _Well I guess the Jewel shards wont be going far as long as I can smell Thorn. I have the time to fight him, even though I don't want to._ Inuyasha nearly stopped as he suddenly felt Thorn's presences directly in front of him. He stopped in a small clearing, in which a small knoll was located, in its side was a freshly dug hole that smelled heavily of Thorn. _What's going on?_ Inuyasha thought, extremely confused.

"Inuyasha. I didn't think you would come here with my scent so heavy," came a soft voice from the trees behind the knoll. 

"What, do you take me as a coward, Sesshoumaru?" growled the pointy-eared half-breed. 

"I only took you for a fool, which is what you are for coming here," the tall lord said, his shadowed from melting from the tree's dark grip. "Jaken," he said, bringing the toad youkai to his side.

"Yes, my lord?" he said in a quivering voice.

"Go guard the entrance," he said, never letting his gaze stray from his brother, who seethed and glowed in anger. 

"What are you hiding, Sesshoumaru?" Inuyasha growled slyly, his hand beginning to inch toward the hilt of his Tetsusaiga. But before the monarch could answer, a hissing growl came from the hole in the dirt mound, covered in sparse grass. 

"Who dares?" spat the wolfish voice. Two, silvery, glowing orbs flamed through the darkness from the seeming den. 

"A nothing half-breed, Thorn. Go back to the pup," Sesshoumaru said as Jaken walked toward the den in a hesitating gait. But before the ugly youkai made it to the den's entrance, Thorn emerged, in full wolfish form, fiery silver eyes blinking in the bright light of the setting sun to her back, setting off the black marking on her forehead.

"Inuyasha," the she-wolf hissed. "I warned you not to come. Now you will be pun-"

"Inuyasha! INUYASHA!" came voices from his group. The heads of all in the clearing turned toward the direction from which the hanyou had come, disrupting the white wolf's words. She growled fiercely, suddenly, darkness in her voice. 

"You lead them here too? Do you not care for their lives?" she snarled. "Well, they will have to be taken care of.." 

"Thorn, return to the pup, I can take care of them," Sesshoumaru said quietly, who, in the head-turning, had assumed a position of defense over the den. 

"Not alone, Sesshoumaru," she said, turning to her right where Jaken stood quivering. "Jaken," she growled.

"Yes, Mistress?"

"Guard the entrance. No one goes in, nothing comes out. Do you understand?" She growled as he stepped closer, right next to her side and in front of the dirt opening. Jaken swallowed thickly, nodding. "You'd better, or I'll be feeding him your eyes as his first meal," she growled, before turning back to the invader, who's bewildered look questioned her sanity. 

"What's happened to you?" he whispered. 

"BlackFire got his wish is all," the she-wolf murmured, her voice dripping with venom.

"Inuyasha! Why did you run ahead like that!" Shippo said from Kegome's shoulder as the rest of the group run up.

"Shippo, I think that's the last of our problems," Miroku said evenly, trying desperately to mask his fear as he saw Sesshoumaru. 

"What are you talking about?" asked the kitsune, turning to the monk.

"Shippo, why don't you look around," Sango said, looking at the threatening pair. 

"Huh? Ahh! Its Sesshoumaru!" screeched the young fox-youkai, hiding behind Kegome's thick black hair. 

"And Thorn too. What's she doing here?" Kegome asked, hand closed at her chest. 

"Ha, ain't it obvious? Their a mated pair!" Inuyasha hissed, his hand finally fleeting to his sword's hilt. 

"How very perceptive of you, Inuyasha," mused the quiet Inu-youkai. "Leave, or I will kill you."

Miroku's left hand began to slowly advance toward his right, which lay cloaked in its purple swath, almost unnoticeably, but Thorn noticed it with her canine eyes, and growled her fierce warning as she took a step back.

"I wouldn't Miroku," she said, reaching from nowhere to reveal a small, fist-sized orange sphere. 

"Naraku's poisonous insects!" he breathed, taking a step back and again putting his hands to his sides.

"I did learn a thing or two while in his company," the white she-wolf said with a smirk in her tone. "So you will be coming no closer." And with that, she opened the hive and released the wasp-like insects. They hummed and buzzed angrily in the air while the monk ground his teeth and sweated in fear. 

__

Damn, Miroku's out, Inuyasha thought, his eyes darting around, but always keeping his brother in plain view.

"We should retreat, Inuyasha. We are clearly outmatched," Sango said, taking a step back. "They seem to know our weaknesses."

"No shit, of course they do! Thorn learned our weaknesses long before you could know," he said, his eyes angry. 

"That's right, Inuyasha. BlackFire told you that I know your past, present, and future. That is why I was kind enough to warn you when I knew that you would be after the Jewel shards. But you were a fool," the she-wolf growled. "And now you all will pay for your eagerness."

"No way, I want those shards!" 

"Inuyasha! Be reasonable! Let's go!" Kegome said at his outburst. 

"You should listen to the wench, Inuyasha. She seems to have more intellect then yourself," Shesshoumaru said, taking another step forward. 

"Shut-up, Sesshoumaru," Inuyasha growled. 

"That's it," hissed the she-wolf impatiently. "I've had enough. Leave now, before I become angry."

"You mean she's not already?" Sango asked to no one but herself and not really expecting an answer. 

"Now you die, Inuyasha," Sesshoumaru said hotly. 

"Just remember, Sesshoumaru, what I said about them and what they still have to do here. Just keep it in mind while you tear him limb from limb," Thorn growled as she licked the saliva dripping from her pallid jaws.

"I will," the lord said.

"Like hell!" Inuyasha cried, drawing the Tetsusaiga, filling the silent wind with a simmering whoosh.

With the unsheathing of the sword, the she-wolf bolted forward, drawing the hanyou's attention while his brother attacked simultaneously with his glowing whip. With his attention on Thorn, he did not see the attack when Sesshoumaru lashed out at him.

"Agg!"

"Inuyasha!" Sango cried. She jumped up as she hurled her giant boomerang into the air. "I'm coming in!"

"Not on my watch, Sango," snarled the she-wolf as she jumped up to meet the flying weapon.

"You've got her!" Shippo yelled.

The sandy-hued boomerang flew toward the leaping she-wolf at a blinding speed, ready to rip through her. The white muzzle gaped open, eyes wild, yet shinning with certainty. With deadly accuracy, the ivory fangs closed around the leather handles and stopped the weapon by dragging it to the ground from the she-wolf's dead weight.

"Impossible!" Sango whispered, taking a step back. Thorn dropped the weapon behind her with a cough. Her platinum glare turned back toward the demon exterminator as she sulked back toward them.

"I know all about you, Sango. I know what happened the day you met Inuyasha and the rest. I know about Kohaku, and your weapon of choice. How you are, essentially, the last of your kind. You should give up while you still can. My magic has shown me many things about you. It is pointless to fight me, I know every move you could possibly make, every thought that is going through your mind. There is no way you can even hope to defeat me, even in my wolfish form." Thorn steadily advanced, putting them all on edge but for Inuyasha, who was too busy with his brother to watch the bitch's approach. 

"Agg!" Inuyasha cried as Sesshoumaru's whip bit into his flesh. 

"Inuyasha!" Kegome called, letting her eyes stray from the advancing wolf. Pressing the advantage of her turned head, Thorn sprung, only to have Miroku's staff thrust in front of her and forcing her to land with a snarl. 

"No! I wont let you harm Kegome!" he said, bracing himself for an attack, eyeing the ginger-striped insects as they hummed angrily. Sango came to stand beside him, her face determined.

The wolf growled at being held back and mumbled something they could not distinguish.

"What?"

"Nothing monk. Fine, I'll take care of you two first," she growled, eyeing the two. Sango drew her sword, her face grim.

Thorn lunched her attack, leaping forward and catching the demon slayer's sword's blade between her powerful jaws. Her lips pulled further from her fangs in a grin before a thud on her side brought a snarl erupting from her throat. Her silver eyes turned to the monk who had retreated his staff for another blow. She clenched her jaws, snapping the blade in two and bringing a gasp from the surrounding humans. The she-wolf dropped the useless blade to the ground and turned to Miroku, who's staff was raised in prospect for another blow. 

"You'll regret that, Miroku," Thorn spat, facing him, but keeping Sango in the corner of her gaze. 

"Inuyasha look out! I'm letting loose this arrow, and it will pierce your heart, Sesshoumaru!" Kegome yelled, positioning her arrow in her bow. Thorn's head turned toward her mate, and her face fell, worry replacing the anger that raged in her eyes. 

"NO!" she screamed, leaping an impossible distance for any normal wolf, just as the girl let her arrow fly. Time seemed to slow down for everyone in the clearing as the white wolf's body blurred in front of the arrow. Kegome's expression fell and her hand fled to her mouth in surprise. Shippo watched from her shoulder as the arrow took flight along with the she-wolf. Jaken and Sango was taken back, eyes wide. Miroku stood and stared, utterly shocked as sweat dripped down his face. Inuyasha was in the middle of leaping down to the ground, hair whipping around his amazed face. Sesshoumaru's face expressed pain that tore at his heart. Thoughts whirled in his mind in fear. Fear of loosing his mate. Fear of what would happen to his pup.

__

She's taking my arrow! She can't do that! The wench's arrow will kill her! She can't survive that attack! The pup! What can I do? the lord thought, his feet searching for the cool earth, his eyes wide, setting off the blue crescent that plastered his forehead. 

The setting sun's last rays reflected off Thorn's ghostly white coat, staining it an inspiring gold. Her eyes shone a liquid brown, a color none had ever seen burrow in their depths. But she knew what the color symbolized. It was the color of her childish human nature. The nature to protect those that were important to the future. To protect those who were important to her. 

The arrow hit her, full in the belly, its purifying power ripping through her being. Time turned back to its normal state, making the body fall with the thud of dead weight.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Authoress' Note: hope you liked! New chapter coming ASAP! I did the disclaimer last time. Tata!


	15. The Battle Ends and BlackFire Appears

__

The Welder of BlackFire:

Thorn's Past Life-A Mysterious Ally

Chapter Fifteen: The Battle Ends-BlackFire Appears

They all stood and stared, Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru dropping from the air to the ground dumbly, without feeling their feet hit the earth.

"Thorn!" Sesshoumaru whispered hoarsely. His body felt drained, although in his battle with Inuyasha had been one-sided and he had hardly used any of his energy. 

The she-wolf's body gave a quiver, and her eyes flicked open. They were still brown, still protecting. She lifted her head weakly and looked around her. 

"What?" Inuyasha breathed. He had been sure she was dead. Kegome's purifying arrows had never failed before.

"Huh," the she-wolf breathed to no one. "The arrow. It didn't kill me." Realization hit her, making Thorn take a quick breath. "No. It can't be."

"Thorn, what's wrong?" Sesshoumaru asked, taking a step forward. The she-wolf's chin lifted toward him. 

"Don't. I know now. Why I'm not effected," she said, her head shaking slightly. 

"How?" Inuyasha asked, confusion painted on his face.

"Huh. Don't you get it? I wasn't in need of purification. My heart was true to my emotions, and they were well-placed. My instincts brought back my human half," she said slowly, her words halting as if she herself hardly understood it. "And they, it, saved me." She looked up, toward Kegome, Shippo, Miroku, Sango, and Inuyasha. 

"AGG!" she screamed, her side burning as she strained to rise. She fell back down, panting heavily. She growled, making the arrow glow in revolt. With a quick motion, she ripped the arrow from her side and snapped it in her jaws, making blood drip down her side in a bubbly fountain.

"I'm fine, Sesshoumaru," she said to his worried thoughts as he watched blood flow down her side and drip onto the ground in a crinsome river.

"Go back to the den and the pup, I can take care of them now," he said, his voice soft and prompting.

"No, I said I was fine," she growled, staggering to her feet. She backed toward the den, standing in front of Jaken, who was slack-jawed and standing only because of the support of his two-headed staff. 

"Kegome! Hit her again! She can't take another one," Inuyasha said behind his shoulder to the girl, his eyes still locked onto his brother. 

"I don't want to kill her, Inuyasha!" she whispered back hotly.

"You wont kill her, stupid girl! You can't! But we can put her out of commission!" he hissed. 

"You act like I can't hear you, Inuyasha," the wolf gasped. "But my hearings just as good as yours, if not better!" she sputtered. 

"It doesn't matter if you can hear me or not," he growled. "Kegome just do it!"

"Okay, okay!" the girl said, stringing her bow once again. The she-wolf gritted her teeth and backed a step toward the den. 

"Jaken, remember what I said. No one, you hear me?" she whispered faintly. 

"Y-yes, M-Mistress," answered the toad demon in a stutter. He was answered with a growl and more retreating steps, making the she-wolf press her tail against the den wall.

"Here it comes!" Kegome yelled.

"Just shoot already!" Inuyasha growled.

"Thorn!" Sesshoumaru yelled down to his mate.

"Don't worry, I can handle this," she said, taking one more step backward and bringing herself against the dirt mound.

The arrow flew true to its master's wishes, lodging itself in the young bitch's shoulder. She groaned aloud and stumbled uncontrollably. With the last of her energy, she turned and yanked the arrow from the tough muscle in which it was imbedded in. She took a quick breath, tongue lolling around her fangs that glinted in the sun's ray's that reflected off the clouds. Sweat clung to her satin coat, mingling with the smearing of blood, and her eyes were wide. After a moment, her legs trembled, and she fell to the ground with a moan, placing her body in front of the den's entrance, showing that she would protect her pup even in her falling.

"Thorn?" Sesshoumaru whispered, taking a step forward before turning his now sinister glare to his brother.

"You!" he hissed, advancing toward his brother, whip held at ready as he seethed and growled.

"Ja-kan," coughed the she-wolf, looking up into his yellow eyes. "No one gets in..." she coughed again, and laid her head down on her paws. "No one," she whispered as her eyes closed. Her breathing slowed, until it was nothing but a shallow intake.

Sesshoumaru turned to look at his mate, eyes wide and breath short, not a second later. "No.." he gasped. "She's stopped breathing."

Everyone turned toward the she-wolf, who's breath had stopped not a moment before. Her side suddenly rose sharply, her breath returning. A growl hissed from her lips and she twitched slightly. Suddenly, her form shimmered and her coat darkened until it was black as tar but for the white scar on her forehead, replacing her black one. 

"Foolish currs!" BlackFire hissed, jumping to his feet. "You couldn't save her from the arrow?! Her life means more than yours!" he growled at the staring Jaken, who was frozen in fear. 

"I-I-I.."

"It doesn't matter now," he said, turning to watch the amazed group that stood in the clearing, who's floor was clothed in shadows as the sky began to darken. "We need to finish this now, so she can heal."

BlackFire leaped forward, his body not nearly as fast as the white blur Thorn was as she took Kegome's first arrow, but speedy none the less. He took advantage of the shock he had caused and attacked Kegome, ripping the leather bag of arrows from her back with a quick snap of his teeth. He ran back to the den's entrance, dropping the arrows by Jaken's side. 

"There, now she can't kill me," he panted. He proceeded to snap every arrow in two, until nothing remained but splinters.

"Inuyasha! Let's go!" Kegome cried. 

"I agree, Inuyasha. We must go! We can't take them on with us defenseless but for you!" Miroku said, still eyeing the wasp-like insects. 

"Inuyasha, we must retreat!" Sango said, turning to look at Kirara who stood back in the shadows of the trees after retrieving her giant boomerang, unnoticed. She leaped on the fire-cat's back along with Miroku. 

"Inuyasha! C'mon!" Kegome cried, tugging on the reluctant hanyou's sleeve.

"Alright, fine," he said, resheathing his sword and pulling Kegome on his back. "This isn't over Sesshoumaru, BlackFire. I'll get those sacred jewel shards!" and with that he turned and fled. 

"Huramph, I'm sure he will one day," BlackFire snorted quietly. Sesshoumaru walked up beside the wolf and looked down on the hidden dragon. 

"How is Thorn?" he asked, his voice suddenly cracking with worry. 

"She'll be fine now that there is no danger. She pressed herself too hard when she took your arrow," he said, hinting that the lord should have done something about it. "And she just couldn't take the second. The first one had little effect because her instincts were the only thing she was thinking about, but with the second one, her demonic blood was beginning to flood back, and so it was killing her."

"Why did she stop breathing?" he asked.

"To let me go, to give just that much more time for her pup."

"What do you mean?" Sesshoumaru asked, his voice hard and threatening. 

"Nothing you need to know about right now. Not until she wants you to know." BlackFire turned to Jaken, who was still staring dumbly. "What are you looking at you sad excuse for a demon?"

"...."

"He's in shock. It happens often. He'll snap out of it soon," Sesshoumaru said looking down at his servant coolly. 

"Let me in the den," BlackFire demanded. Jaken shook his head from the daze, and quivering. 

"I-I can't," he said in a trembling voice, holding his staff in defense to the blow he knew would come. 

"What do you mean you can't?" hissed the wolf.

"S-she said no one goes in but her and nothing comes o-out," the toad demon replied, still holding the staff in front of him.

"She is me! I am her! We are the same!" the wolf snarled in exasperation. 

"N-no. She said no. I must obey her wishes!" Jaken yipped. 

"Can we wait until she heals and comes back?" Sesshoumaru asked BlackFire. 

"It should take at least a day and a half for her to be able to come back to a conscience state. She's that drained," the wolf replied. "But the pup will die before then without warmth or suckling."

They listened to the quiet breaths of the pup inside the den and its steady heart beats.

"AGG! DAMMIT!" BlackFire screamed, startling his companions as he shook his head and backed away. His eyes squeezed shut and he writhed and fought. "Stubborn bitch."

"Just remember she's my stubborn bitch," Sesshoumaru said, watching as the coat turned from dark ebony to chalky gray. After a few moments, the wolf's coat was completely opposite and back to its original pigment. 

"Stubborn dragon," the she-wolf growled. She looked up to her mate and Jaken. She took a drunken step forward, cursing her weak condition under her breath. "Get out of my way, Jaken," she said, walking weakly into the den. The two left in the darkening night listened while they heard her plop down on the den floor with a sigh and the scrambling and whimpering of the pup as it moved closer to her warm body.

"Don't just stand there all night you two, there's nothing that you can do now, so go guard," she growled tiredly. 

"Hmm," Sesshoumaru said, satisfied his mate was fine. He turned away and began a night of guarding, making sure to keep in hearing distance of the den as a precaution.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

AN: done again! Quick, no? hai! Well, I'm off to do another! Its almost done, only about ahh, four more chapters? And the epilogue of course! ^_^ byez!

Disclaimer: did it before. You know the drill.


	16. The Rain and the Loss

__

The Welder of BlackFire:

Thorn's Past Life-A Mysterious Ally

Chapter Sixteen: The Rain and the Loss

It had been three days, and since then no trouble had dared enter the clearing. Thorn stuck her nose out the den's entrance, sniffing the air. Sesshoumaru was out hunting, she supposed, when she couldn't feel him close by. She stepped out of the den slowly, looking around for Jaken.

"Mistress!" he squawked when he saw her. The she-wolf's head jerked around, facing him.

"Quiet, Jaken," she said quietly. 

"What is it, Mistress?" he whispered, walking closer. With a soft growl, her paw lashed out, hitting him hard on the head, making him fall. 

"Sleep, Jaken," she whispered, standing over him. His eyes drooped and his body relaxed and sighed. He fell limp in the morning light and began to slumber. 

Thorn looked up, toward the east, watching as the sun made its steady trek over a mountain. She cursed and then retreated back in the den. When she emerged the second time, her pup was held stiffly in her gentle jaws. She looked around one more time, sniffing the air once again, but the smell of her pup and death was so strong in her nostrils it was pointless. She sulked off into the trees.

Golden eyes watched her as she traveled along, heading east, into the sun, as if she had a destination. 

__

Maybe she's just moving the pup. After what happened with Inuyasha finding us, no doubt she finds our current location too well-known, Sesshoumaru thought. _But I would think she would tell me if she was going to move the pup._ The lord thought a moment before moving to follow her. The wind was against him and he could not catch her scent. But she caught his. 

Thorn stopped, not bothering to look back she growled in his mind. _Go back. Do not follow me. I must do this myself._

By now the Inu-youkai had learned that she read his mind for a few moments after speaking, listening to his reply or thoughts.

__

Why? was all he thought back to her. She sighed, her body moving with it visibly.

__

Because only the she-wolf buries a dead pup, she whispered. Before he could answer her, she fled, trusting that he would respect her request for privacy. 

Sesshoumaru stood on a thick tree branch, shocked. Rain tricked down through the tree branches, riveting down the silver hair of the demon. He stood there for a few minutes before really realizing that she was gone and he could not track her with the now pouring rain that splashed around him. He cursed himself silently before turning back to watch over the clearing. 

Thorn ran through the rain, wanting its gentle and comforting fingers to massage the pain and stress away. She had lost many before this, and she had drown the pain of their loss in her anger, and in her bodily strength. But now her body was still spent, unrecovered from her sacrifice, and her anger was gone without energy to give it its needed fire. She had realized that bodily strength was worthless if she had no mental strength long ago, and so with the deaths that had surrounded her, she had made her mind strong. Now her mind had been broken, its strong walls cracked, and they would take a long time to heal and mend. 

The rain fell harder, its murmur on the trees less of a comfort, and more of a remembrance. It reminded her of the days her family had fallen, one by one by dieses that could never be healed, no matter how much strength they had in mind or body. The memories made her growl and take in the strengthening scent of her dead pup. It made her run faster, fueled by her heart and emotions. Her paws drummed steadily against the flooding earth, kicking mud and grass up on her luxurious, pearly coat. The sun's rays were cast away by clouds that steadily raced to block out its warmth. Cold began to set in as the she-wolf's emotions made a chaotic mess of their host. Pain began to flood her body and soul, seeping into her being like ice, threatening to kill her being. She hated the cold with a passion, and its tightening grip on her soul made her angry. Her anger's fire, although small, tried its best to melt away the ice into live-giving water. But its flame was too weak. This time she would not gain something to make her stronger from the ice. Not now. 

She came upon a long forgotten tree, its branches stripped of its leaves and bark. It did not flower, nor fruit, it was dead. Cold and dead. A perfect spot. 

She set the white pup on the ground beside her as she began to dig. Her already mud-stained paws darkened with the water-soaked soil. Her warm breath fell in rhythm with her paws constant pumping, casting ghostly shadows of breath into the chill air. Her sweat began to mingle with the streaks of rain that ran down her soiled coat as she strained to keep the mud from sliding back into her trench. She dug around roots and removed stones from the soon-to-be grave. After a long while, she had made a cave-like structure with old, knarled roots making walls to keep the water-laden mud from sliding into the cozy little room. She huffed, satisfied. She looked over to the pup through the curtain of drizzling rain. Her eyes shone with compassion, a mix of brownish gray. She took a step toward the dead pup and nuzzled it one more time. Her tongue washed over its dirtied coat with a sorrowful growl. She picked up her first-born with morose. A tear trickled from her right eye as she looked down at the fresh hole. She closed her eyes as it ran down the length of her jaw and landed in the burrow. It glowed bluish silver, but when it hit the earth, it was not soaked up, nor did it merge with the other water. It solidified into a gem and rolled down into the bottom of the pit, its middle a liquid that swirled with the different colors of brown, green, blue, and silver all rolled into one. The pup was placed next to it, its face set in a peaceful expression, in a never-ending slumber. With one last trembling breath she began to slowly pack in the dirt. 

*

__

I could have saved the pup, and she knew that. The Tensaiga could have brought him back to life. So why didn't she ask me to? Or even just let me? She knows I could, would, have done it. Sesshoumaru thought to himself, sitting on a tree branch, listening to the trees drip as water coasted down their leaves. He tested the air, but the it was still too heavily laden with moisture to pick out far-away scents. But then it hit him. Her scent. And the scent of death. He jumped down from the twisted branch onto the water-logged loam. 

Thorn walked along slowly, clearly aware of her mate's gaze as it followed her. She was still in her wolf form, not yet ready to change back into her human shape. Her eyes were locked on the ground, tracing the mini rivers that flowed around her, and avoiding stepping on their course, lest she disrupt their journey to a bigger body of water, so much like she had done with the lives of those in this world, desperately trying not to interfere, yet doing so without want. Her paws were still stained with black mud, giving her an appearance of wearing boots, and floating in the milky air. Her ears did not flicker, but were back as if listening. Her tail was low as she slinked along in the rapidly-approaching mist. 

Day was upon the earth, but it was still dark as dusk. The clouds, after draining themselves of their precious liquid, had refused to disperse, lingering reminders of the morning. The sun fought to break through, forcing strong rays through weak points of the clouds. But the sun's rays were too few and could not banish the thickening mist. 

The huntress stepped into the clearing, rising her eyes to look at the newly evacuated den. She growled sadly and turned her gaze away, back toward the ground. 

"Why didn't you let me bring him back?" Sesshoumaru asked from behind her, stepping toward her cautiously.

"Because it was Fate speaking to me. She told me that everything I know is wrong," came the muffled reply. She did not turn to look at him. "She was telling me that what I thought was my destiny was nothing but false dreams."

The Inu-youkai lord stepped forward. Thorn's eye caught the movement, and her ear twitched uneasily to hear it. 

"I don't know when I will be back, but I need time to clear my head. I know you understand. But don't think I wont be back. I promise I'll be back, and you know that I never break promises," and with her rushed words she looked up toward the den and the still slumbering Jaken. "This is not good-bye." And with that, she fled, a speeding white blur turning into nothing but the shadow of the cloaking mist, a ghost in the empty sea of white. 

Sesshoumaru was frozen in place. She had done it to him, he knew. He would be paralyzed for only a few moments more. He had let her do it, in wondering thought as to what she wanted of him. But he knew why she had done it, she wanted him to think about what she had said long and hard in case he had made an uncharacteristic bolt after her. He knew that her words were true. That she would not leave his side for long. She was too devoted, too strong in her will to keep hard-won alliances, unwilling to break their close bond. So he watched her go.

Two minutes later, his body was again functional. He sighed and looked to the empty den, listening to the wind as it exhaled ghosts of the pup's heartbeats and lingering traces of its breath. He turned toward Jaken, who's spell was broken as his was.

"Master Sesshoumaru? Where's Mistress?" he asked sleepily, swaying up to his lord. But he got no answer as the youkai looked off into the mist as it thickened almost protectively. 

"My Lord?" Jaken said, prodding the monarch into speech. Silence was his answer. The toad demon was smart enough not to ask anymore questions.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

AN: another done! Only a few more to go!

DISCLAIMER: did it, done it, leave me alone. -lawyers back away-


	17. The Blacka Blaze and Thorn's GoodBye

__

The Welder of BlackFire:

Thorn's Past Life-A Mysterious Ally

Chapter Seventeen: The Black Blaze and Thorn's Good-Bye

"Do you feel that too, Inuyasha?" Miroku asked, watching as the hanyou paused in mid-step. 

"Yeah. Thorn's calling to us," he answered, looking up. 

"What's wrong with you two?" Kegome asked, wheeling her bike to a stop next to them. 

"Can't you feel it Kegome?" Shippo asked from the bike's seat. The girl paused a moment before answering. 

"Yeah! Yeah, I can," she said, turning to the kitsune. 

"We should go," Sango said.

"What? After the way we got beaten last time, you want to answer her call?" Shippo squeeked.

"Yes, I agree. What do you think Inuyasha?" Miroku asked. The inu glanced toward Kegome, who nodded. 

"Fine, let's go!" he said, bolting into the trees.

__

Just like last time, only this time she's calling for us to come. Even the sun is setting, just as it was before. Hopefully this time I won't be defeated and I'll get the shards. Inuyasha thought to himself as he paced along, his feet covering the ground swiftly. _But we're nowhere near her denning site, and why would she be summoning us if she has her cub so close? We'll just have to go and find out. I wonder how she's emitting the signal like that?_ He gritted his teeth and looked behind him, watching as his companions ran to keep up with him. He waited for them right before a thick wall of trees. _She's right behind these trees. I can feel it. Her voice in my mind is getting stronger._

"Inuyasha, do you have to run so fast?" Kegome panted, coming to a stop behind him. "Why did you stop?"

"She's right here, can't you feel the Jewel shards?" he growled.

"Oh, yeah, but I didn't think she was so close. The feeling of the shards is almost hidden."

"Feh."

"So are we going in?" Sango asked, readying her weapon on her back.

"I don't think she wants to fight, Sango," Miroku said.

"Yes well, I don't want to take any chances. A mother with a child is no one to mess with," she stated, but relaxed somewhat. She acquired a glance from nearly everyone in the group. "What? That's what everyone says!" she said.

__

Are you coming? whispered a voice in the air. Thorn's voice. They all turned toward the wall of trees.

"I hate it when she does that!" growled Inuyasha as he sulkily lead them past the thick curtain of trees, but his guard was high as he took in their surroundings, contemplating battle strategies. Just in case.

Thorn sat peacefully on the other side of the sparsely treed groove. Her eyes were closed, and her hands placed gracefully on her lap. Her hair shimmered with a golden glow in a ray of the retreating sun's light, still long and luxurious, two strands falling over her closed eyes. 

"Glad you could make it. The others will be here momentarily," Thorn said, lifting her chin and opening her emerald eyes to look at them. Before they could say a word, she continued on. "Sango. Hello. We have yet to be properly introduced. You may call me Thorn."

"Are you saying that is not your real name?" the demon exterminator quipped. The woman smiled.

"That doesn't matter anymore. Everything will be explained soon enough, when the other guests arrive. But before that, I wanted to show you I was not truly as you saw me, as the devilish wench."

"Yeah right," murmured Inuyasha, but Thorn picked up the sound. She glared at him, but only sternly, not with any cruelty. 

"I have something that will prove useful in the future," the woman continued, reaching behind her. Sango braced herself, but what Thorn pulled out behind her she did not use against her. She revealed the sword that had, not a few weeks ago, been snapped in two with her powerful, canine jaws. "This is yours, I have fully reinforced the point where I fused the two halves back together with unbreakable dragon scales that have been hardened into metal. It will not snap as long as your spirit believes it wont. And your spirit is strong. It wont give up, so neither will the blade," she explained, offering the sword to the now-seated woman. 

"Umm, thank you, ah, Thorn," Sango said, taking the newly-mended sword and sheathing it. Thorn sighed, looking around as the group sat around her in their respective places. 

"So what's the meaning of all this?" Inuyasha said with a snort, dropping to the ground with a thud, his arms crossed, as if he was bored. 

"You'll find out in a few minutes. Do you not feel the others coming?" she asked. Inuyasha opened his eyes, clearly no longer bored. He looked at her a moment, and then looked up into the tapestry that swam across the evening sky, listening, smelling. It took him a couple seconds before he realized what she was talking about. His eyes grew wide and he growled and cursed under his breath.

"Why'd _he_ have to come?" Inuyasha huffed. 

"Well I would think that you would understand," she said bitingly, but her tone was playful. 

"Feh." 

"Thorn. What's going on?" Sesshoumaru asked, slipping from the shadows. A gasp escaped nearly everyone in the clearing but for Inuyasha, who growled fiercely, and Thorn, who smiled sweetly. 

"Mistress! What's going on?" Jaken asked in his usual squawk. 

"Its time you knew about everything. Please, Sesshoumaru, Jaken, sit. And try not to kill one another you two," Thorn said, referring to the growling inu-youkai's. "While I explain."

"Explain what? I know everything I need to know," Sesshoumaru said, reluctant to sit across from Inuyasha. 

"That is not true, my dear. Please, have a seat. You all deserve to know the truth," the black-dressed woman said with a sigh. The Inu-youkai lord sat down gracefully, his body close to her side, with Jaken hesitating before sitting next to his master. 

"What truth? You mean everything you told us were lies?" Inuyasha growled, tearing his angry eyes from his brother to his brother's mate. 

"Not entirely, but I will admit that I haven't been entirely honest with you."

"Of course," Inuyasha spat, receiving a dagger-like glare from his brother at his lack of respect in his tone.

"Will you let me begin?" Thorn asked, glaring at both brothers. 

"Yes, go ahead," Sesshoumaru said, turning to face her.

Thorn sighed and took a deep breath, and her body began to glow a bright azure. Inuyasha and his group was taken back, but Sesshoumaru and Jaken were unfazed by her concealing spell. 

"Its easier to speak through the mind in my present state, and so that is how this tale will be spun," Thorn said, as she closed her eyes and bid the others to do the same.

"Now, Inuyasha, Sesshoumaru, dear," she growled softly, pressing buttons in their mind to force their eyes shut. They closed their eyes reluctantly, but did so still the same. "First, I must tell BlackFire's story, if you're to understand what I need to tell you."

She began her tale, her voice fluid and clear in everyone's mind. 

*

__

BlackFire, who's name you might find familiar if I told you his real name was Blazin' Black Fire, The Black Blaze. Yes, I know, everyone thought he had been killed long ago, but he's alive and well right beside you. Clearly, his reputation for being heartless and a killing-machine proceeds him even hundreds of years after his imprisonment. Anyway, when he was still young, only a couple of hundreds of years old, he learned that he had naturally evolved into having a second stomach. A stomach that demanded a feeding of souls every hundred years. The stomach digested the souls, and gained their strongest and most useful powers. The more powerful the soul that was consumed, the more powerful he became after the ten-year digestion period. He would gain their power after those ten years, and soon, his soul became addicted to the power and greed overtook it. He began to consume more souls every hundred years to keep its hunger at bay. But the more he killed, the more addicted he himself became to the scent and taste of blood. Finally, after thousands of years of watching BlackFire consume so many, a large band of priests and priestess, hundreds if not nearly thousands, grouped together to put an end to his destruction before he killed off the races that inhabited the world. They plotted for years, binding their time until they could corner him. Finally, they did corner him, and began the battle. They attacked him in waves, so that after killing one wave of weak priests and priestess, he was faced with another, more powerful wave of them. Eventually, they wore him down. There were too many souls and too much rotting flesh about him, and both of his stomachs screamed for more, although they were ready to burst in their fullness. And still, they kept coming, forcing him to kill them until the ground was so littered with the carcasses and his body craved for more that he was forced, for the first time in his life, to retreat to higher ground. Finally, though, the waves became less and less, although their strength became even greater. At last, when he had advanced to a high shelf on a high mountain, he saw the power and strength that drove the holy people to their deaths. It was a young man, with a strong, powerful aura. He was the last, and he stepped forward to finally dispose of the mighty dragon. He said that he would not kill BlackFire, but nor would he let him go unpunished. But by then, the Black Blaze was too weak and exhausted of his powers to seemingly give him much of a fight. But he did. He fought until his stomachs revolted from not consuming the flesh at his claws or the souls that hung at his jaws, and then he could do nothing but stare down the man. His breath was heavy with smoke, a sign that the dragon was spent, as he panted, anger raging in his blue eyes that hinted enraged gold as he hissed curses under his breath. 

"You will forever suffer for what you have done!" the young man had said in a strong voice, raising his sword into the air. BlackFire paused as he saw the sword. It was capped with the energy of the man, and he knew that in his weakened condition he could not even harden his armor to ward its power off. He waited for the blow, and received it, but it was only on his forehead, where he now welds a scar, as do I. But the man did not kill him, instead the man began to chant, slowly, then with more vigor and heart. His sword began to quiver and shake, as well as glow with even more awesome powers than before. 

"With this sword you will pay the debt you owe!"

I will explain in similar terms as to what the rules were to BlackFire's imprisonment that the man explained. When he became a sword, the rules would be simple. He was to find a human willing to harness his heart. They would have to be pure of heart, and preferably a child, but without a heart that was true to their emotions, he would not be able to fuse with them and thus would remain held stead-fast by the sacred tree his blade was thrust into. If he was to find a willing human, and I will explain why I say human in a moment, to weld him as a sword and harness his energy into pureness, then his body would be freed from the sword-state and he could roam again. Now, the priest had said a human, and had done this because the mind and soul of a demon is much more easily converted from light to dark by BlackFire's black energy, while a human is stubborn, and thus is harder to convert if it came to such measures. The idea of this was to teach him what it was like to not be a killer, to be innocent and pure. As his soul became purer with the human's positive energy, he would come to have more freedom from his prison, but would never be completely free until there was not a trace of darkness in his mind or soul. 

As he told him all of this, BlackFire slowly began to change his shape, but he was too drained to be tapping into his shape-shifting powers. It was the man who was changing him, twisting his large bulk into a broad-sword. He resisted, but the man's power was too great and he was too drained. 

Now, after telling the Black Blaze of his mission to become pure and caring, he said one last thing, the words that forever have stayed fresh in BlackFire's mind as if they were carved into the rock of his memory. 

"Now, in sacrifice for the people of our world, I shall take my own life, and be sure to add my soul into you own, just as you have with all the others you have consumed." And so he emptied BlackFire's second stomach of the souls he had already consumed, and so when the priest's soul was added, more of it was absorbed than if it was digested with many other souls. 

When BlackFire eats a soul, as you know, he gains their power, so when he was forced to eat the priest's soul, which was pure and caring, after the ten years, the pureness was absorbed, forever part of his being. It was the first step towards his rebirth. But I am getting far ahead of myself.

By the time his second stomach was emptied, BlackFire was already nearly in full sword shape, and so could not consume more souls to dilute it. But also, the man had placed a powerful spell on Blazin' BlackFire, so that until his soul was totally flowing within the dragon, he would be deaf and blind to everything around him, living in a void until the time passed. 

When the time did pass, the spell was broken and he was eligible to search for his new welder. But every time a demon was foolish enough to come and try to take him from his resting spot, instead of letting them go without harm, he had also been granted the freedom to kill them, because although he was imprisoned, his second stomach still demanded the souls, even if his first stomach did not need to consume flesh in order for him to survive. When he took the souls he was not granted their powers, but was able to use them to free his own soul from the sword and search for his new owner thanks to the shard of the Shikon no Tama that had become imbedded in his hilt. Now, you know what happened from there, his finding me in the future and using what power and freedom he had gained from the jewel shard, _or had all along, opened a portal into the future and bring me to this time. _

Now there is something that I have yet to tell you about his whole sword-bound spell. If BlackFire's heart were to become poisoned once again by the greed of his mind, soul, and stomach, and he were to betray the one who trusted him in their welding and kill them, then his soul would forever be fused with their soul in reincarnation for all of eternity. This is why I have brought you here today. Now I will release you from this trance and answer the questions I hear burning in your minds. Thorn released them with a sigh.

"What does this soul-binding have to do with you?" Sesshoumaru asked, who was the first to recover and was more worried about his mate then the sword. 

"It has a lot to do with me. I am his welder, and so these rules apply to me. After I left a few days ago, I thought long and hard about our pasts, about how both our lives have been changed by Fate and her plans," Thorn said, her eyes not opening. BlackFire hummed softly on her back, but only the glow was visible to the group in the darkness. "When I left I learned in more detail of what I just told you. Fate had told me, Sesshoumaru, with the death of the pup," This brought startled expressions from most of the group. "That I was living a lie that I had told myself, and BlackFire himself had told himself a lie when he thought he could obtain the jewel shards to rid himself of his prison, and knows that he does not want to become pure in soul."

"So what does that have to do with us? It seems to me that this is between you and that sword," Inuyasha said, crossing his arms with a snort. 

"Inuyasha! Have a little respect," Kegome said. 

"Well it doesn't," the hanyou grumbled.

"It does, Inuyasha," Thorn said with a smile. "If you want the jewel shards that I have, and I have many of them." This caught Inuyasha's attention and he sat quietly for once, waiting. 

"What's going on? I don't understand what you're trying to say," Sesshoumaru asked. 

Thorn's eyes bolted open, and she sat up straighter, her teeth grinding. They all stared at her, confused. After a moment, she relaxed and sighed, again closing her eyes as she took a shaky breath. 

"What was that all about?" Miroku asked. Thorn smiled sadly.

"I will explain why I have called you all here. Both BlackFire and I have agreed that we would be better off emotionally, and better for the future, if we were reincarnated together. BlackFire is willing to sacrifice his soul so that we are forever joined. We will forever be as one," the sword-welding woman explained. Realization hit Sesshoumaru first, making him take a quick breath and opening his eyes wide. 

"No! He put you up to this didn't he? Well I wont have it! I'll bring you back with the Tensaiga," Sesshoumaru growled, glaring at the obscured sword on her back.

"No, you wont," Thorn said firmly. "After I die, which will happen soon, I will erase you're memories with the last of my power, the power that was gained from the priest that confined BlackFire. You will live your lives as if I never appeared, you will all forget."

"I don't want to forget," Sesshoumaru said.

"I wont erase it completely. It will be determined by your will to remember. If you want to remember that much, then when, or if, you see my reincarnation, your memory should be sparked. You wont remember everything, depending on how much you want to remember, but its the best I can do without altering the future." Thorn sighed, and opened her green eyes with a sad smile. "But I have a favor to ask of Kegome first." She pulled out a folded envelope. "Kegome, I need you to send this to America for me, so that my mother knows I will not be coming home. You don't have to, but I ask that you call her at the number on the other note, or send her a letter and tell her that I was killed in a fire, and so there was nothing worth bringing back to her. She shouldn't insist upon any evidence. This letter tells her that I had a great time and everything else she wants to hear, nothing special. Thank you Kegome. If I am reincarnated, because I died in this time, I will come back to our time, if so I'll try to come see you," Thorn said with a smile as the girl took the letter from her. 

"This is not the way out, Thorn," Kegome whispered. 

"Yes it is. When you leave here you will not remember, but when you go back to our time, then you will remember, but once the letter leaves your possession, your memory will be erased." Thorn turned to Inuyasha. "Although you probably wont remember what I say, I will tell you this, Inuyasha," The hanyou turned toward her, pretending he wasn't interested. "How many demons do you think you will have to slay to get all of the jewel? Besides Naraku?" 

"I thought you said you were going to tell me something, not ask questions," he huffed.

"How many?" she persisted.

"Well, about ten or fifteen more I'd say, it depends on how many slaves Naraku hires to try kill me with them," he replied, looking up toward the dark sky, thinking hard. 

"Well, once you get the jewel, you will of have defeated all those demons, right?" she asked. Inuyasha grew suspicious.

"Yeah. What are you driving at, Thorn?" he asked, glaring at her. 

"Well, does that not make you stronger than a demon? To defeat them like that, especially since they will have the shards that enhance their strength? Inuyasha, don't get that look on your face, you look like a pouting child. Just think a moment, I know that if I say this, you'll remember. Your human blood is not a curse, no matter how much you see it as such. More that likely, it was your human blood that won the victory. If you defeated so many demons, without being a full one yourself, does that not prove that you are stronger than them? Let me finish before you start arguing. Just think, when you get all of the shards and finally have the Shikon no Tama as a whole, will you really need it? You will of have already proven that you are stronger than those demons, even with their added strength. You should be happy with what you are. I wasn't, and look how I ended up. I just had to tell you, so that I knew that you had been told." Thorn ended her speech with another sigh, and turned to her mate. "And I have something to give you Sesshoumaru. It isn't knowledge, or a last request, its an offering. A remembrance if you will, even if you don't remember." She pulled from her leather garment a small, multi-colored gem. "I have cried only two of these. You can guess that the other is with the pup. I want you to have it," she said, putting her hand in his and dropping the pebble-like stone into his hand. She removed her hand, and he looked at the gem as the colors swirled around in its depths, reminding him of the night her eyes had glowed silver and green, a whirlpool of color and emotions swimming for dominance over one another.

The dying woman sighed and closed her eyes. "I'm ready BlackFire, let's go. And now I leave you. The Shikon shards will be scattered once again, to build your strength, Inuyasha. You all will walk away in a sleep, but I assure that nothing will harm you, and when you all wake, my memory will be gone from your mind. I hope to see you all in our reincarnation." And with those final words BlackFire burst into a bright golden light, and then all was dark.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

AN: WOO! Done! Well, I'm posting the epilogue too, so don't fret! ^_^

DISCLAIMER: said and done dammit!


	18. Epilogue

__

The Welder of BlackFire:

Thorn's Past Life-A Mysterious Ally

Epilogue

"Sota! Come on! I don't have time for this! I have to get home and study!" Kegome said impatiently to her younger brother.

"Oh please Kegome! Can't we just go look? Just for a minute?" the boy asked, looking up to his sister with pleading brown eyes. Kegome sighed and rolled her own brown eyes.

"Okay, okay! But we're not buying any! Wolves are dangerous, Sota, and just because their puppies doesn't mean there not," the girl said, exasperated. "I can't believe someone would own such a dangerous creature," she mumbled under her breath as her brother pulled her gaily toward the house with the sign out front that said, 'Wolf pups to good home'. There was no one in the yard were they entered, but they could hear yips coming from a large, fenced-in section of the yard. Sota let go of his sister's sleeve and ran over to the cage, his backpack flopping heavily on his back. 

"The young'n come to see the pups?" an male voice called from the house. He was a jolly-looking fellow with black hair that had begun graying above his ears. His smile was radiant as he saw the young boy giggling at the pups. Kegome turned to face him with a smile. 

"Good afternoon, sir," she said, bowing slightly before turning back toward her brother. 

"Good afternoon. You're the girl from the shrine, aren't you?" he asked, leaning his medium-sized frame against the fence. 

"Yes I am," she replied.

"Your grandfather's a good man, glad to see that his grandchildren are healthy," he said with a smile. But Kegome didn't answer. Her gaze was caught up in the green eyes of a pup. It hung back in the shadows, untrusting of the human that laughed and giggled with its brothers and sisters. Kegome choked back a gasp. 

"Something the matter?" the man asked, following her gaze to the pup. "Ah, that one's a bit of a loner there. She's always 'n the shadows, and don't trust no one. Here, let me bring her out in the light so you can see her better." The man opened the gate, making sure not to let any of the puppies out of the kennel. "She's a real beaut when she's not sulking in the shadows. Then she just looks intimidating."

Sota looked at his sister, who had the look of recognition and confusion on her face. 

"Kegome?" he asked, confused. But he wasn't answered as his sister's eyes were still on the pup that the man was trying to pick up. The wolf pup growled, her eyes glowing, and she backed away, ears back and hackles raising at the threat.

"Now c'mere, girl. I'm not gunna hurt ya. There we go. Nothing to be afraid of," the owner cooed. He advanced his hand out to her slowly as Kegome watched. The wolf pup finally let the man's hand grasp her by the scruff of the neck as he pulled her into his arms. "There we go," he said, moving back toward the entrance. He opened the gate, refusing to let the other pups escape, to their dismay.

"Now this one, she's a bit of a loner like I said. She dun trust anyone much. I wouldn't take her as a family pet, she's more like something for a person who's alone and needs company. She's smart, and learns quick enough if she wants to. But if she doesn't, well lets just say its like they say, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make 'em drink." The man chuckled. He held a beautiful, white pup that seemed to have a black birthmark on her forehead. Her coat was a soft hide of pure ivory stain, its texture looking like solidified, silky water.

The man looked at her, but still he received no answer. Finally, Kegome's gaze was broken from the small creature as Sota pulled on her sleeve.

"Kegome, dinner will be ready soon, we should go," the boy said uneasily. He didn't like the look in his sister's eyes when she looked at the wolf. 

"Ah, yes. Go on ahead, Sota, tell Mom I'll be home a little late, I, ah, need to pick something up at the store," Kegome replied, not looking at her brother. 

"Ahh huh," was her answer as he started back to the shrine where they lived. When he was far down the street, Kegome turned back to the man and pup.

"May I hold her, sir?" Kegome asked, taking the man back a step.

"Ah, well, sure. But I warn ya, she's got a sharp set of fangs in that trap of 'ers," the man said, handing the tense pup to the girl. The wolf lay contently in Kegome's arms. "Well I'll be. No one's ever touched her without at least a growl. She must like you. Ha! Maybe ya'll met in a past life!" the man said jokingly, but his laugh was nervous.

"How much do you want for her, sir?" she asked hesitantly, but confident, petting the canine in her arms. 

"Fer this pup? Well, it seems that yer the only one that can really touch her without losin' a finger or two. Ah, what the heck? I'm sure that she wont go for anyone else, so she's yers."

"You mean you're giving her to me?"

"Sure, why not? She's pure wolf, and not many go for that. You can have her. I'm sure you'll take good care of her," the man said with a smile. "Here, let me get a rope so she wont get loose," he said, heading back into the house. Kegome held the wolf up, looking into those deep green eyes. 

"I remember you. I forgot who you are, but I'm sure I'll remember with time," Kegome whispered. The pup answered with a blink. 

"Here ya go. We'll just knot it like so, and then pull the end through the loop like this and yer all set," the man said, exiting the house putting a nylon rope over the silky white ears. 

"Thank you so much," Kegome said, turning toward home. The pup did not fuss in her arms as she walked the mile back to the shrine. When she did arrive, her mother and grandfather were appalled.

"Kegome! A wolf!" her mother exclaimed.

"Kegome! You said that we weren't getting one!" Sota whined softly.

"She's not ours, Sota," Kegome explained.

"I don't understand, what do you mean, dear?" her mother asked.

"I'm taking her with me back to the Fuedal Era. She gives me the strange feeling that that is where she belongs," Kegome said. 

*

__

I smell wolf, Inuyasha thought, sitting next to the Bone-Eaters Well. His eyes narrowed as he looked around for the bringer of the scent. _Koga?_

"A little help! Hello? Can anyone hear me up there?!" came Kegome's voice from below. 

__

I'll find it later, Inuyasha thought, getting up and looking down the well as Kegome struggled to climb up the well's stone wall with vines that grew down it. She had an over-stuffed, yellow backpack hanging from her shoulders. From its top poked something white and fuzzy, but the bag's top shifted and Inuyasha did not see what it was. 

"What's the matter with you?" Inuyasha asked with disgust.

"That's what I get for coming here? Honestly, Inuyasha, you should give me a little more respect," Kegome spat back up at him. The hanyou mumbled something to himself quietly, but Kegome heard the rude comment.

"I heard that! SIT BOY!" she yelled. 

THUMP! 

Inuyasha growled more rude comments into the dirt, his voice dripping with loathing. Kegome pulled herself up from the well's lip with a sigh, looking down on the half-dog-demon. After a few moments the spell wore off and Inuyasha was again able to get up, move around, and curse freely without the spell holding him to the crater he had formed in the earth. He brushed the dirt off his sleeves while Kegome waited for him. The scent of wolf, he noticed, had grown stronger. Suddenly, he turned around, facing the girl.

"Why do you smell like wolf?" he growled. Kegome's eyes lit up as she removed her pack from her back. 

"I almost forgot about her!" she said. Inuyasha watched as she opened up the top and put her hands in the bag.

"Her? What are you talking about, Kegome?" Inuyasha asked gruffly. Kegome pulled out a white wolf pup, making the hanyou growl and eye the pup with suspicion, turning enough to keep it in his gaze, but looking as if he couldn't care less. He crossed his harms with a huff.

"What's with the mutt?" he asked, and was answered by flattening of satiny ears, an angry growl and snap of little fangs. 

"Be nice to her, Inuyasha!"

"Where did you get her?" he asked. "She smells familiar."

"That's what I thought too! I feel like I know her!" Kegome said, bringing the pup to her breast and comforting it. 

"What are you going to do with her?"

"I have a feeling that she belongs with Sesshoumaru," she said quietly. The hanyou turned around with a growl and the baring of fangs.

"WHAT?!" he exclaimed. "He just tried to steal the Tetsusaiga _again_ and you want to give him a pup that, more than likely, he'll rip limb from limb just for pleasure?! Besides, he's dead! I killed him with the Tetsusaiga. What is wrong with you?!"

"Nothing is wrong with me, Inuyasha! Don't tell me you don't get the same feeling! Like she needs, or maybe wants, to be with him," Kegome argued. The pup was silent, but her green eyes strayed to the golden ones of Inuyasha. 

"What are you looking at?" he growled, putting his face in her own. "You don't get it, do you? That dead bastard would tear you apart without a thought, Mongrel!" The wolf clearly did not like his tone and with a flash of needle-like fangs, snapped her teeth around his nose. He pulled back with a yelp, holding his throbbing nose and cursing. Kegome giggled.

"I think that she understood what you said, and didn't like it one bit. Or bite, if you want to be technical."

"Shut-up! Fine, whelp! Go kill yourself!" he howled. 

"I'll go find him tomorrow!" Kegome said happily.

"What the hell are you thinking? No you're not! If she wants to see him that much, then she can go to him herself!" he hissed, releasing his nose in his anger. Kegome giggled at the sight of the swollen nose. "What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing," she said, struggling to hide her laughter. 

"Fine, then lets go," he growled, turning away and heading back toward the rest of his group. "Myoga! Where the hell is Toutousai with my sword?" he asked the flea on his shoulder. "I need to practice this new technique he and Sesshoumaru were bragging about!" 

"Don't worry, girl. We'll get you to him," Kegome said, looking into the deep gaze of the wolf. 

*

"Okay, girl. There's Jaken over there, he'll lead you to Sesshoumaru if he's still alive. Don't worry about his looks, he's a faithful servant of Sesshoumaru, and if you keep following him then you'll be sure to find who you're looking for," Kegome said, quite a distance from where the toad-demon stood. She put the pup on the ground, facing the grassy clearing were Jaken stood guard over a small human girl that Kegome failed to notice. The wolf looked up at the girl with a lolling tongue, rare for the normally self-restrained pup, looking as if grinning. She gave the girl a lick of her wet tongue on the girl's cheek, suggesting thanks, and stalked through the long grass toward Jaken. "Good luck and be careful!" Kegome whispered as she watched the white tail disappear in the long grass. She quickly retreated back to her group before Inuyasha noticed she was gone or, if Sesshoumaru was alive and around, the inu-youkai noticing her.

Sesshoumaru landed silently in the thick grass behind the young wolf. The pup growled fiercely before turning toward him, her jade eyes bright and sinister. The Inu-youkai was a bit stunned and familiarity flickered before his eyes. But he could not place the memory, nor the familiar scent of dragonblood that laced the pup's scent. 

"Who are you?" he asked, straightening from the semi-crouch in which he had landed in. He was answered with a soft growl, suggesting that the pup lacked the ability of speech in her youthful state. "I see." A whuffle escaped the pup's maw. 

"Lord Sesshoumaru! What's going on?" Jaken asked, stumbling up to his master. The wolf pup growled and snapped at the toad-demon, who pulled back and cringed. "What's with this little mutt?" he asked.

"Quiet, Jaken," Sesshoumaru said, his eyes on the young pup as she growled at the insult. A small girl with wild flowers in her hands came up and stood next to Jaken. The pup merely glanced at the girl, and seemed to pass her off as no threat. 

"Come here, pup," the master said. The wolf looked up in his eyes with her bright green ones. She did not come forward right away, her move showing that she was not one to be ordered. But she looked at his face, contemplating. After a few moments she walked straight up to him and sat down, the lord's gaze caught in her own. They stared like that a moment.

"Hmm." Sesshoumaru turned away. "Let's go."

Jaken and the girl, Rin, looked at each other before following. The wolf pup bounded past them, and trotted at the Inu-youkai's heels. Jaken opened his mouth to protest, but the wolf turned her head and shot him a glare that immediately made him shut it. 

~

The wolf pup slept contently by Sesshoumaru, who had decided to sit by the fire that night. The crackling of fire did not wake her as it danced shadows across her pallid coat. Her breathing was steady, healthy, and she did not seem unnerved by the youkai's presents by her side. In the distance a tree branch snapped, making her flick her ears. Sesshoumaru looked toward the sound, but knew it was nothing. When he turned back toward the fire, he noticed added warmth to his left knee. He looked down to see the pup's chin on his knee and bright eyes that reflected the flames of the fire.

"What?" he asked, looking down on her. He was answered with a small whuffle. She lifted herself up and placed her front paws on his knees, her eyes locked on his and her tail gave a hardly noticeable twitch. 

"Hmm," the Inu-youkai mused. "You were a fool to come to me. Why did you do it?" he asked, not expecting an answer. He turned his eyes away, letting them turn to the licking tongue of fire before him. 

The wolf growled, but he did not answer, but continued to stare into the fire. He felt depressed, as if he had lost something important, but had forgotten what it was. Confusion plagued him endlessly. 

With a sudden leap, the pup jumped into the lord's lap, her muzzle rifling through the folds of his robes. Sesshoumaru looked down, surprised at her boldness. He held up his clawed hand, threatening to swat her away. She saw it, but did not turn from her task. 

__

Foolish pup, he said to himself. But he couldn't bring himself to hit her. Instead, he lowered his hand to her scruff and picked her up from his lap. By now she had found what she was looking for and had grasped it firmly in her jaws. Sesshoumaru's eyes widened at the cloth she had clasped in her juvenile maw. Her body balled up tightly as any young pup would when its mother lifted it from the ground, but her eyes bore into his. She nodded her head slightly, making her package swing toward the youkai, but not dropping it.

Sesshoumaru looked at her uncertainly.

"Drop it," he said quietly. She gave a soft growl and looked at him a moment before dropping it onto his lap. He put her down gently in front of him and moved to pick up the tiny bundle. The wolf huffed slightly before shaking and watching as the lord picked up the deposited cloth.

Sesshoumaru picked it up carefully, feeling familiarity in its texture. He glanced quickly at the wolf, who was gazing at him with upright, pointed, ears and a tilted head. He looked back at the bundle, slowly peeling back the layers that covered the hidden treasure. Something pearly shone brightly, even through the last layer of cloth that still covered it. 

Sesshoumaru took a quick breath in recognition, his eyes widening as he turned to stare at the pup before him for but a second. He uncovered the rest of the swirly gem swiftly, holding it in the palm of his hand as it glowed a defiant light, its depths still swirling the brown, green, blue, and silver as if his mate had just given it to him not minutes ago. His breath came in ragged gasps as he held the glowing jewel, his mate's tear, in his hand. His eyes kept straying from the gem to the pup, memories flooding back in a rush. 

"Thorn?" he finally managed to whisper. The pup's mouth opened and her tongue lolled, her expression that of satisfaction. She yipped, almost silently, in answer, rubbing her head against his knee. 

"Thorn!" he whispered hoarsely, pulling the pup into a tight hug. She growled softly in his ear, nuzzling the crook of his neck. "You've come back."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

(Author's note: ALL DONE! Yay! Not that I didn't enjoy writing this fic, I'm just glad its over. Well, read my other fics and have a great day!

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters incorporated into this story BUT for Thorn and Blazin' BlackFire, who are my own personal characters.


End file.
